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"^Sis  booU    is   F^'  -     » 

4  ..H^  . K^^/^y^-Uy- 


SOUTHERN  BRANCH, 

DNIVFRSITY  OF   CAIIFORNIA, 

LIBRARY, 

1  OS  A  C.   i_ir. 


QARLYLE'S    COMPLETE     WORKS 

THE    STERLING    EDITION 


HISTORY 


OF 


FRIEDRICH   II.   OF   PRUSSIA 


CALLED 


FREDERICK    THE    GREAT 

BY 

THOMAS     CARLYLE 


Vol.  I. 


BOSTON 
ESTES  AND   LAURIAT,   PUBLISHERS 

49905 


?Ini(jcrsitn   ^rcss: 
John  Wilson  and  iSox,  CAJinianos. 


CONTENTS. 


Book   I. 


BIRTH   AND   PARENTAGE.    1712. 
CUAPTHR  Page 

I.  Pkoem:  Friedricu's  History  from  the  Distance  we 

ARE  AT 3 

1.  Friedrich  then,  and  Fritdrich  now,  p.  6. 

2.  Eighteenth  Century,  9. 

3.  English  Prepossessions,  12. 

4.  Encouragements,  Discouragements,  17- 

IL  FRiEDRicn's  Birth 21 

■    III.  Fatuer  and  Mother  :  the  Hanoverian  Connection  .    .  24 

IV.  Father's  Mother 35 

\.  King  Friedrich  1 45 

Book   II. 
OF  BRANDENBURG  AND  THE   HOHENZOLLFRNS.     928-1417. 
T.    Brannibor  :  Henry  the  Fowler 55 

II.  Preussen  :  Saint  Adalbert 63 

Til.    Markgraves  of  Brandenburg 69 

End  of  the  First  Shadowy  Line,  p.  69. 
Second  Shadowy  Line,  70. 

Substantial   Markgraves :    Glimpse  of  the  Contemporary  Kai- 
sers, 72. 

IV.    Albert  the  Bear 74 

V.    Conrad  of  Hohenzollern  ;  and  Kaiser  Barbarossa     .      80 
Conrad  has  become  Burggraf  of  Niirnberg  (a.d.  1170),  p.  84. 
Of  the  HohenzoUcrn  Burggravcs  generally,  87. 


iv  CONTENTS. 

Chapter  Page 

VI.    The  Teutsch  Ritters,  or  Teutonic  Order      ....      89 
Head  of  Tcutscli  Order  moves  to  Venice,  p.  'Jl. 
Teutsch  Older  itself  goes  to  Preussen,  93. 
The  stuff  Teutsch  Hitters  were  made  of.     Conrad  of  TLiiria- 
gen:  Saint  Elizabeth;  Town  of  Marburg,  98. 

VII.    Margraviate  o?  Culmbacu  :  Baireutu,  Anspacii  .     .     .     1U2 
Burggraf  Friedrieh  III.  ;  and  the  Anaichy  of  Nineteen  Years, 

p.  104. 
Kaiser  Rudolf  and  Burggraf  Friedrieh  III.,  108. 

VIII.    Ascanier  Markgraves  in  Brandenburg 110 

Of  Berlin  City,  p.  111. 

Markgraf  Otto  IV.,  or  Otto  with  the  Arrow,  113. 

IX.    BuRCGRAF  Friedrich  IV 116 

Contested  Elections  in  the  Reich  :  Kaiser  Albert  I. ;  after  whom 
Six  Non-llapsburg  Kaisers,  p.  116. 

Of  Kaiser  Heury  VII.  and  tiie  Luxemburg  Kaisers,  119. 

Henry's  Sun  Johaiin  is  King  of  Bohemia;  and  Ludwig  the  Ba- 
varian, with  a  Contested  Election,  is  Kaiser,  li!l. 

X.    Brandenburg  lapses  to  the  Kaiser 12G 

XI.    Bavarian  Kurfursts  in  Brandenburg 130 

A  Resuscitated  Ascanier;  the  Fdse  Waldemar,  p.  130. 
Margaret  with  the  Pouch-mouth,  133. 

XII.    Brandenburg  in  Kaiser  Karl's  Time;  End  of  the  Ba- 
varian Kurfursts 136 

End  of  Resuscitated  Waldemar ;    Kurfiirst  Ludwig  sells  out, 

p.  138. 
Second,  and  then  Third  and  Last,  of  the  Bavarian  Kurfiirsts  in 
Brandenbm-g,  140. 

XIII.  Luxemburg  Kurfursts  in  Brandenburg 141 

XIV.  Burggraf  Eriedrich  VI 144 

Sigismnnd  is  Kurfiirst  of  Brandenburg,  but  is  King  of  Hun- 
gary also,  p.  145. 

Cousin  Jobst  has  Brandenburg  in  Pawn,  147. 

Brandenburg  in  the  hands  of  the  Pawnbrokers  ;  Rupert  of  the 
Pfalz  is  Kaiser,  149. 

Sigismnnd,  with  a  struggle,  becomes  Kaiser,  151. 

Brandenburg  is  pawned  for  the  last  time,  154. 

The  Seven  Intercalary  or  Xon-II;ipsburg  Kaisers,  157. 


CONTENTS. 


Baolt  III. 

THE  HOHENZOLLERNS  IN   BRANDENBURG.     1412-1713. 
Chapter  Page 

I.     KUKFURST   FrIEDEICII    1 159 

II.    Matixees  du  Roi  de  Prusse IGl 

III.  KuBFURST  Friedricu  II 170 

IV.  KuRFUusT  Albert  Achilles,  and  his  Successor  .     .     .     177 

•  Johaiin  the  Cicero  is  Fourth  Kurfiirst,  aud  leaves  Two  nolublc 

Sons,  p.  181. 

V.    Ob"  THE  Kaireutii-Anspacu  Branch      .......     184 

Two  Lilies  in  Culuibach  or  Baireulh-AiispacL  :  the  Gera  Bond 

oflo'JS,  p.  185. 
The  Elder  Line  of  Cnlnibach  :  Friedrieh  and  his  Three  notable 

Sons  there,  188. 
Friedrich's  Second  Son,  Margraf  George  of  Anspach,  190. 

VI.    HociiMEisTER   Albert,   Tuird    notable   Son  of  Fkied- 

Ricii 200 

VII.     AlbKRT  AlXlDIADLS 209 

VIII.    Historical  Meaning  of  the  Reformation 215 

IX.    KuRFURST  Joachim  1 219 

Of  Joachim's  ^Yife  aud  Brother-in-law,  p.  220. 

X.     KuRFURST   JOACUIM   II 224 

'^oachim  gets  Co-iufeCtuient  in  Preussen,  p.  230. 
Joachim   makes    "Heritage-Brotherhood"  with   the    Duke  of 
Liegnitz,  230. 

XI.    Seventh  KuriCrst,  Johann  George 236 

XII     Of  Albert  Friedrich,  the  Second  Duke  of  Preussen      239 

Of  Duke  Albert  Friedrich's  Jlarriage :  who  his  Wife  was,  and 

what  her  possible  Dowry,  p.  241. 
Margraf  George  Friedrich  comes  to  Preussen,  to  administer,  244. 

XIL.   Ninth  Kurfurst,  Johann  Sigismund 246 

How  the  Cleve  Heritage  dropped,  and  many  sprang  to  pick  it 

up,  p.  247. 
The  Kaiser's  Thoughts  about  it,  and  the  Woild's,  252. 


vi  CONTENTS. 

Chapter  Paoe 

XIV.    Symptoms  of  a  Gee  at  War  coming 253 

Fii'st  Symptom;  Donauworth,  1608,  p.  253. 

Second  Symptom ;  Seizure  of  Jiilich  by  the  Kaiser,  and  Siege 
and  Recapture  of  it  by  the  Protestant  parties,  IGIO.  "Where- 
upon "  Catholic  League  "  to  balance  "  Evangelical  Union," 
255. 

Symptom  Third  ;  a  Dinner-scene  at  Diisseldorf,  1613 :  Span- 
iards and  Dutch  shoulder  arms  in  Clevc,  257. 

Symptom  Fourth,  and  Catastrophe  upon  the  heels  of  it,  261. 

What  became  of  the  Cleve-Jiilich  Heritage,  and  of  the  Preusscn 
one,  263. 

XV.    Textu  Kurfurst,  George  Wiliielm 2G5 

XVI.    Thirty- Years  War 207 

Second  Act,  or  Epoch,  1624-1629.     A  second  Uncle  put  to  the 

Ban,  and  Pommern  snatched  away,  p.  270. 
Third  Act,  and  what  the  Kurfiirst  suffered  in  it,  272. 

XVII.    DvcuY  OF  Jagerndorf  . 27b 

DiLke  of  Jiigerndorf,  Elector's  Uncle,  is  put  under  Ban,  p.  276. 

XVIII.    Friedricu  Wiluelm,  the  Great  Kurfurst,  Eleventh 

OF  THE  Series 27r 

\A'hat  became  of  Pommern  at  the  Peace;  final  Glance  into  Cleve- 
Jiilich,  p-.  282. 
The    Gre^ft    Kurfiirst's    Wars  :    what  he  achieved  in  AVar  and 
Peace,  283. 

■    XIX.    King  Friedricu  I.  again 296 

How  Austria  settkd  the  Silesian  Claims,  p.  296. 
His  real  Character,  299. 

XX.    Death  of  King  Friedricu  1 302 

The  Twelve  llohenzollcrn  Electors,  p.  308. 
Genealogical  Diagram ;  the  Two  Culmbach  Lines,  309a. 

moh  IV. 

ERIEDRICH'S   APPRENTICESHIP,  FIRST   STAGE.     1713-1723. 

I.    Childhood;  Double  Educational  Element 310 

First  Educational  Element,  the  French  one,  p.  311. 

n.    The  German  Element 316 

Of  the  Dessauer,  not  yet  "  Old,"  p.  318. 

III.    Friedrich  Wilhelm  is  King 324 


».  CONTENTS.  vii 

*■ 

Chapter  Page 

IV.    His  Majesty's  Wats 337 

V.    Friedrich  Wilhelm's  One  War 3ii 

The  Devil  in  harness:  Creutz  the  Fiuauce-Miuister,  p.  356. 

YI.    Tub  Little  Drummer 359 

VII.    Transit  op  Czar  Peter 364 

VIII.    TuE  Crown-Prince  is  put  to  uis  Scuooling    ....  37i 

IX.    Wusteriiausen 3SS 

X.    TuE  IIeideluerg  Protestants 39J. 

Of  Kur-Pl'ulz  Karl  Philip  :  How  he  got  a  Wile  loiiy  since,  and 
did  Feats  in  the  Woild,  p.  396. 

Karl  Philip  and  his  Heidelberg  Protestants,  398. 

Friedrieh  Wilhelm's  Method ;  —  proves  remedial  iu  Heidelberg, 
401. 

Prussian  JIajesty  has  displeased  the  Kaiser  and  the  King  of 
Poland,  403. 

There  is  an  absnrd  Flame  of  War,  blown  ont  by  Admiral  Byng ; 
and  a  new  Man  of  Genius  annouuces  himself  to  the  dim  Popu- 
lations, 406. 

XL    Of  TdE  Crown-Prince's  Progress  in  his  Schooling     .    408 

The  Noltenius-and-Pauzendorf  Drill-exereisc,  p.  412. 

XII.    Crown-Prince  falls  into  Disfavor  witu  Papa     ,     .     .    416 
Xill.    Results  of  the  Crown-Prince's  Schooling      ....    419 


Book   V. 

DOUBLE-MARRIAGE    PROJECT,   AND    WHAT    ELEMENT    IT    FELL 
INTO.     1723-1726. 

I.    Double-Marriage  is  decided  on 425 

Queen  Sophie-Dorothee  has  taken  Time  by  the  Forelock,  p.  426. 
Princess  Amelia  comes  into  the  World,  437. 
Friedrich  Wilhelm's  Ten  Children,  439. 

II.    A  Kaiser  hunting  Shadows 440 

Imperial  Majesty  on  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht,  p.  441. 
Imperial  Majesty  has  got  happily  wedded,  443. 
Imperial  Majesty  and  the  Termagant  of  Spain,  445. 
Imperial  Majesty's  Pragmatic  Sanction,  447. 
Third  Shadow:   Imperial  Majesty's  Ostend  Company,  451. 


viii  CONTENTS. 

Chapter  Page 

III.  The  Seven  Crises  or  European  Travail-throes  .     .    .    452 

Congress  of  Cambrai,  p.  454. 

Congress  of  Cambrai  gets  the  Floor  pulled  from  under  it,  457. 

France  and  tbe  Britannic  Majesty  trim  the  Ship  again  :   How 

Friednch  Wilhelm  came  into  it.     Treaty  of  Hanover,  1725, 

459. 
Travail-Throes  of  Nature  for  Baby  Carlos 's  Italian  Apanage ; 

Seven  in  number,  402. 

IV.  Double -Marriage  Treaty  cannot  be  signed   ....    464 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Portrait  :    the  Great  Elector. 

From  a  Dutch  Print.     Etched  by  S.  A.  Schoff. 

Frontispiece. 


HISTORY   OF 

FRIEDIilCH    II.  OF    PRUSSIA, 

CALLED 

FREDERICK   THE   GREAT. 

IX  TWENTY-OXE  BOOKS. 


FKEDERICK   THE    GREAT. 


BOOK    I. 

BIRTH  AXD  PARENTAGE. 
1712. 


CHAPTER   I. 

PROEM  :    FIIIEDRICU'S    HISTORY    FROM    THE   DISTANCE   "WE 
ARE   AT. 

About  fourscore  years  ago,  there  used  to  be  seeu  saunter- 
ing on  the  terraces  of  Sans  Souci,  for  a  short  time  in  the 
afternoon,  or  you  might  have  met  him  elsewhere  at  an  earlier 
hour,  riding  or  driving  in  a  rapid  business  manner  on  the 
open  roads  or  through  the  scraggy  woods  and  avenues  of  that 
intricate  amphibious  Potsdam  region,  a  highly  interesting 
lean  little  old  man,  of  alert  though  slightly  stooping  figure ; 
whose  name  among  strangers  was  King  Friedrich  the  Second, 
or  Frederick  the  Great  of  Prussia,  and  at  home  among  the 
common  people,  who  much  loved  and  esteemed  him,  was  Vater 
Fritz,  —  Father  Fred,  —  a  name  of  familiarity  which  had  not 
bred  contempt  in  that  instance.  He  is  a  King  every  inch  of 
him,  though  without  the  trappings  of  a  King.  Presents  him- 
self in  a  Spartan  simplicity  of  vesture  :  no  crown  but  an  old 
military  cocked-hat,  —  generally  old,  or  trampled  and  kneaded 
into  absolute  softness,  if  new  ;  —  no  sceptre  but  one  like  Aga- 
memnon's, a  walking-stick  cut  from  the  woods,  which  serves 
also  as  a  riding-stick  (with  which  he  hits  the  horse  ''  between 
the  ears,"  say  authors)  ;  —  and  for  royal  robes,  a  mere  soldier's 


4  BIRTH  AND  PARENTxiGE.  Book  I. 

blue  coat  with  red  facings,  coat  likely  to  be  old,  and  sure  to 
liave  a  good  deal  of  Spanish  snuff  on  the  breast  of  it ;  rest  of 
the  apparel  dim,  unobtrusive  in  color  or  cut,  ending  in  high 
over-knee  military  boots,  which  may  be  brushed  (and,  I  hope, 
kept  soft  with  an  underhand  suspicion  of  oil),  but  are  not  per- 
mitted to  be  blackened  or  varnished ;  Day  and  Martin  with 
their  soot-pots  forbidden  to  approach. 

The  man  is  not  of  godlike  physiognomy,  any  more  than  of 
imposing  stature  or  costume :  close-shut  mouth  with  thin  lips, 
prominent  jaws  and  nose,  receding  brow,  by  no  means  of 
Olympian  height;  head,  however,  is  of  long  form,  and  has 
superlative  gray  eyes  in  it.  Not  what  is  called  a  beautiful 
man ;  nor  yet,  by  all  appearance,  what  is  called  a  happy.  On 
the  contrary,  the  face  bears  evidence  of  many  sorrows,  as  they 
are  termed,  of  much  hard  labor  done  in  this  world ;  and  seems 
to  anticipate  nothing  but  more  still  coming.  Quiet  stoicism, 
capable  enough  of  what  joy  there  were,  but  not  expecting  any 
worth  mention ;  great  unconscious  and  some  conscious  pride, 
well  tempered  with  a  cheery  mockery  of  humor,  —  are  written 
on  that  old  face  ;  which  carries  its  chin  well  forward,  in  spite 
of  the  slight  stoop  about  the  neck ;  snuffy  nose  rather  flung 
into  the  air,  under  its  old  cocked-hat,  —  like  an  old  snuffy 
lion  on  the  watch ;  and  such  a  pair  of  eyes  as  no  man  or  lion 
or  lynx  of  that  Century  bore  elsewhere,  according  to  all  the 
testimony  we  have.  "Those  eyes,"  says  Mirabeau,  "which, 
at  the  bidding  of  his  great  soul,  fascinated  you  with  seduction 
or  with  terror  (portaient,  au  gre  de  son  dme  hero'ique,  la  seduc- 
tion ou  la  terreur).^'  ^  Most  excellent  potent  brilliant  eyes, 
swift-darting  as  the  stars,  steadfast  as  the  sun  ;  gray,  we  said, 
of  the  azure-gray  color ;  large  enough,  not  of  glaring  size  ;  the 
habitual  expression  of  them  vigilance  and  penetrating  sense, 
rapidity  resting  on  depth.  Which  is  an  excellent  combina- 
tion ;  and  gives  us  the  notion  of  a  lambent  outer  radiance 
springing  from  some  great  inner  sea  of  light  and  fire  in  the 
man.  The  voice,  if  he  speak  to  you,  is  of  similar  physiog- 
nomy :  clear,  melodious  and   sonorous ;  all   tones   are   in   it, 

^  Mirabeau,  Histoire  Secrete  de  la  Coiir  de  Berlin,  Lettre  28"'  (24  Septem- 
bre,  1786),  p.  128  (in  edition  of  Paris,  1821). 


Chap.  I.  PROEM:  FROM   THIS   DISTANCE.  5 

from  that  of  ingenuous  inquiry,  graceful  sociality,  light- 
flowing  banter  (rather  prickly  for  most  part),  up  to  definite 
word  of  command,  up  to  desolating  word  of  rebuke  and 
reprobation ;  a  voice  '*  the  clearest  and  most  agreeable  in 
conversation  I  ever  heard,"  says  witty  Dr.  Moore.^  "  He 
speaks  a  great  deal,"  continues  the  doctor 5  "yet  those  who 
hear  him,  regret  that  he  does  not  speak  a  good  deal  more. 
His  observations  are  always  lively,  very  often  just ;  and  few 
men  possess  the  talent  of  repartee  in  greater  perfection." 

Just  about  threescore  and  ten  years  ago,^  his  speakings 
and  his  workings  came  to  finis  in  this  World  of  Time ;  and 
he  vanished  from  all  eyes  into  other  worlds,  leaving  much 
inquiry  about  him  in  the  minds  of  men ;  —  which,  as  my 
readers  and  I  may  feel  too  well,  is  yet  by  no  means  satisfied. 
As  to  his  speech,  indeed,  though  it  had  the  worth  just  ascribed 
to  it  and  more,  and  though  masses  of  it  were  deliberately  put 
on  paper  by  himself,  in  prose  and  verse,  and  continue  to  be 
printed  and  kept  legible,  what  he  spoke  has  pretty  much  van- 
ished into  the  inane ;  and  except  as  record  or  document  of 
what  he  did,  hardly  now  concerns  mankind.  But  the  things 
he  did  were  extremely  remarkable  ;  and  cannot  be  forgotten 
by  mankind.  Indeed,  they  bear  such  fruit  to  the  present 
hour  as  all  the  Newspapers  are  obliged  to  be  taking  note  of, 
sometimes  to  an  unpleasant  degree.  Editors  vaguely  account 
this  man  the  "  Creator  of  the  Prussian  Monarchy ; "  which 
has  since  grown  so  large  in  the  world,  and  troublesome  to  the 
Editorial  mind  in  this  and  other  countries.  He  was  indeed 
the  first  who,  in  a  highly  public  manner,  notified  its  creation  ; 
announced  to  all  men  that  it  was,  in  very  deed,  created ;  stand- 
ing on  its  feet  there,  and  would  go  a  great  way,  on  the  impulse 
it  had  got  from  him  and  others.  As  it  has  accordingly  done ; 
and  may  still  keep  doing  to  lengths  little  dreamt  of  by  the 
British  Editor  in  our  time ;  whose  prophesyings  upon  Prussia, 
and  insights  into  Prussia,  in  its  past,  or  present  or  future,  are 
truly  as   yet  inconsiderable,  in  proportion  to   the   noise   he 

1  Moore,  View  of  Society  and  Manners  in  France,  Switzerland  and  Germany 
(London,  1779),  ii.  246. 

2  A.D.  1856,  —  17th  August,  1786. 


6  BIRTH  AND  PAEENTAGE.  Book  I. 

makes  with  them  !     The  more  is  the  pity  for  him,  —  and  for 
myself  too  in  the  Enterprise  now  on  hand. 

It  is  of  this  Figure,  whom  we  see  by  the  mind's  eye  in 
those  Potsdam  regions,  visible  for  the  last  time  seventy  years 
ago,  that  we  are  now  to  treat,  in  the  way  of  solacing  ingenu- 
ous human  curiosity.  We  are  to  try  for  some  Historical 
Conception  of  this  Man  and  King ;  some  answer  to  the 
questions,  "  Wliat  was  he,  then  ?  Whence,  how  ?  And  what 
did  he  achieve  and  suffer  in  the  world  ?  "  —  such  answer  as 
may  prove  admissible  to  ingenuous  mankind,  especially  such 
as  may  correspond  to  the  Fact  (which  stands  there,  abstruse 
indeed,  but  actual  and  unalterable),  and  so  be  sure  of  admis- 
sibility one  day. 

An  Enterprise  which  turns  out  to  be,  the  longer  one  looks 
at  it,  the  more  of  a  formidable,  not  to  say  unmanageable 
nature !  Concerning  which,  on  one  or  two  points,  it  were 
good,  if  conveniently  possible,  to  come  to  some  preliminary 
understanding  with  the  reader.  Here,  flying  on  loose  leaves, 
are  certain  incidental  utterances,  of  various  date  :  these,  as 
the  topic  is  difficult,  I  will  merely  label  and  insert,  instead 
of  a  formal  Discourse,  which  were  too  apt  to  slide  into  some- 
thing of  a  Lamentation,  or  otherwise  take  an  unpleasant 
turn. 

1.    Friedrich  then,  and  Friedrich  now. 

This  was  a  man  of  infinite  mark  to  his  contemporaries ; 
who  had  witnessed  surprising  feats  from  him  in  the  world; 
very  questionable  notions  and  ways,  which  he  had  contrived 
to  maintain  against  the  world  and  its  criticisms.  As  an 
original  man  has  always  to  do ;  much  more  an  original  ruler 
of  men.  The  world,  in  fact,  had  tried  hard  to  put  him  down, 
as  it  does,  unconsciously  or  consciously,  with  all  such;  and 
after  the  most  conscious  exertions,  and  at  one  time  a  dead- 
lift  spasm  of  all  its  energies  for  Seven  Years,  had  not  been 
able.  Principalities  and  powers.  Imperial,  Eoyal,  Czarish, 
Papal,  enemies  innumerable  as  the  sea-sand,  had  risen  against 
him,  only  one  helper  left  among  the  world's  Potentates  (and 


CiiAP.  I.  *         PROEM:  NOW   AND   THEN.  7 

that  one  only  while  there  should  be  help  rendered  in  return) ; 
and  he  led  them  all  such  a  dance  as  had  astonished  mankind 
and  them. 

No  wonder  they  thought  him  worthy  of  notice.  Every 
original  man  of  any  magnitude  is ;  —  nay,  in  the  long-run, 
who  or  what  else  is  ?  But  how  much  more  if  your  original 
man  was  a  king  over  men ;  whose  movements  were  polar, 
and  carried  from  day  to  day  those  of  the  world  along  with 
them.  The  Samson  Agonistes,  —  were  his  life  passed  like 
that  of  Samuel  Johnson  in  dirty  garrets,  and  the  produce  of 
it  oifly  some  bits  of  written  paper, — the  Agonistes,  and  how 
he  will  comport  himself  in  the  Philistine  mill ;  this  is  alwa3'S 
a  si^ectaele  of  truly  epic  and  tragic  nature.  The  rather,  if 
your  Samson,  royal  or  other,  is  not  yet  blinded  or  subdued  to 
the  wheel ;  much  more  if  he  vanquish  his  enemies,  not  by 
suicidal  methods,  but  march  out  at  last  flourishing  his  miracu- 
lous fighting  implement,  and  leaving  their  mill  and  them  in 
quite  ruinous  circumstances.  As  this  King  Friedrich  fairly 
managed  to  do. 

For  he  left  the  world  all  bankrupt,  we  may  say ;  fallen  into 
bottomless  abysses  of  destruction ;  he  still  in  a  paying  condi- 
tion, and  with  footing  capable  to  carry  his  affairs  and  him. 
When  he  died,  in  1786,  the  enormous  Phenomenon  since  called 
Prexch  Devolution  was  already  growling  audibly  in  the 
depths  of  the  world ;  meteoric-electric  coruscations  heralding 
it,  all  round  the  horizon.  Strange  enough  to  note,  one  of  Fried- 
rich's  last  visitors  was  Gabriel  Ilonore  Kiquetti,  Comte  de 
Mirabeau.  These  two  saw  one  another;  twice,  for  half  an 
hour  each  time.  The  last  of  the  old  Gods  and  the  first  of 
the  modern  Titans  ;  —  before  Pelion  leapt  on  Ossa ;  and  the  foul 
Earth  taking  fire  at  last,  its  vile  mephitic  elements  went  up  in 
volcanic  thunder.  This  also  is  one  of  the  peculiarities  of  Fried- 
rich,  that  he  is  hitherto  the  last  of  the  Kings ;  that  he  ushers 
in  the  French  Eevolution,  and  closes  an  Epoch  of  World-His- 
tory. Finishing  off  forever  the  trade  of  King,  think  many  ; 
who  have  grown  profoundly  dark  as  to  Kingship  and  him. 

The  French  Eevolution  may  be  said  to  have,  for  about  half 
a  century,  quite  submerged  Friedrich,  abolished  him  from  the 


8  BIRTH  AND   PARENTAGE.  Book  I. 

memories  of  men ;  and  now  on  coming  to  light  again,  lie  is 
found  defaced  under  strange  mud-incrustations,  and  the  eyes 
of  mankind  look  at  him  from  a  singularly  changed,  what  we 
must  call  oblique  and  perverse  point  of  vision.  This  is  one  of 
the  difficulties  in  dealing  with  his  History ;  —  especially  if  you 
happen  to  believe  both  in  the  French  Eevolution  and  in  him ; 
that  is  to  say,  both  that  Real  Kingship  is  eternally  indis- 
pensable, and  also  that  the  destruction  of  Sham  Kingship  (a 
frightful  process)  is  occasionally  so. 

On  the  breaking-out  of  that  formidable  Explosion,  and 
Suicide  of  his  Century,  Friedrich  sank  into  comparative  ob- 
scurity ;  eclipsed  amid  the  ruins  of  that  universal  earth- 
quake, the  very  dust  of  which  darkened  all  the  air,  and 
made  of  day  a  disastrous  midnight.  Black  midnight,  broken 
only  by  tlie  blaze  of  conflagrations; — wherein,  to  our  terri- 
fied imaginations,  were  seen,  not  men,  French  and  other,  but 
ghastly  portents,  stalking  wrathful,  and  shapes  of  avenging 
gods.  It  must  be  owned  the  figure  of  Napoleon  was  titanic ; 
especially  to  the  generation  that  looked  on  him,  and  that 
waited  shuddering  to  be  devoured  by  him.  In  general,  in 
that  French  Revolution,  all  was  on  a  huge  scale ;  if  not 
greater  than  anything  in  human  experience,  at  least  more 
grandiose.  All  was  recorded  in  bulletins,  too,  addressed  to 
the  shilling-gallery ;  and  there  were  fellows  on  the  stage 
with  such  a  breadth  of  sabre,  extent  of  whiskerage,  strength 
of  windpipe,  and  command  of  men  and  gunpowder,  as  had 
never  been  seen  before.  How  they  bellowed,  stalked  and 
flourished  about ;  counterfeiting  Jove's  thunder  to  an  amazing 
degree !  Terrific  Drawcansir  figures,  of  enormous  whisker- 
age,  unlimited  command  of  gunpowder ;  not  without  sufficient 
ferocity,  and  even  a  certain  heroism,  stage-heroism,  in  them ; 
compared  with  whom,  to  the  shilling-gallery,  and  frightened 
excited  theatre  at  large,  it  seemed  as  if  there  had  been  no 
generals  or  sovereigns  before ;  as  if  Friedrich,  Gustavus, 
Cromwell,  William  Conqueror  and  Alexander  the  Great  were 
not  worth  speaking  of  henceforth. 

All  this,  however,  in  half  a  century  is  considerably  altered. 
The  Drawcansir  equipments  getting  gradually  torn  off,  the 


Chap.  L  PEOEM  :    EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  0 

natural  size  is  seen  better ;  translated  from  the  bulletin  style 
into  that  of  fact  and  history,  miracles,  even  to  the  shilling- 
gallery,  are  not  so  miraculous.  It  begins  to  be  apparent 
that  there  lived  great  men  before  the  era  of  bulletins  and 
Agamemnon.  Austerlitz  and  Wagram  shot  away  more  gun- 
powder,—  gunpowder  probably  in  the  proportion  of  ten  to 
one,  or  a  hundred  to  one;  but  neither  of  them  was  tenth- 
part  such  a  beating  to  your  enemy  as  that  of  Rossbach, 
brought  about  by  strategic  art,  human  ingenuity  and  intre- 
pidity, and  the  loss  of  165  men.  Leuthen,  too,  the  battle 
of  Leiitlien  (though  so  few  English  readers  ever  heard  of  it) 
may  very  well  hold  up  its  head  beside  any  victory  gained  by 
Napoleon  or  another.  For  the  odds  Avere  not  far  from  three 
to  one  ;  the  soldiers  were  of  not  far  from  equal  quality ; 
and  only  the  General  was  consummately  superior,  and  the 
defeat  a  destruction.  Napoleon  did  indeed,  by  immense  ex- 
penditure of  men  and  gunpowder,  overrun  Europe  for  a  time : 
but  Napoleon  never,  by  husbanding  and  wisely  expending 
his  men  and  gunpowder,  defended  a  little  Prussia  against 
all  "Europe,  year  after  year  for  seven  years  long,  till  Europe 
had  enough,  and  gave  up  the  enterprise  as  one  it  could  not 
manage.  So  soon  as  the  Drao'cansir  equipments  are  well  torn 
off,  and  the  shilling-gallery  got  to  silence,  it  will  be  found 
that  there  were  great  kings  before  Napoleon,  —  and  likewise 
an  Art  of  War,  grounded  on  veracity  and  human  courage  and 
insight,  not  upon  Drawcansir  rodomontade,  grandiose  Dick- 
Turpinism,  revolutionary  madness,  and  unlimited  expenditure 
of  men  and  gunpowder.  "You  may  paint  with  a  very  big 
brush,  and  yet  not  be  a  great  painter,"  says  a  satirical  friend 
of  mine  !  This  is  becoming  more  and  more  apparent,  as  the 
dust-whirlwind,  and  huge  uproar  of  the  last  generation, 
gradually  dies  away  again. 

2.  Eighteenth   Century. 

One  of  the  grand  difficulties  in  a  History  of  Friedrich  is, 
all  along,  this  same,'Tliat  he  lived  in  a  Century  which  has 
no  History  and  can  have  little  or  none.     A  Century  so  opu- 


10  BIRTH  AND  PARENTAGE.  Book  I, 

lent  in  acctiniulated  falsities,  —  sad  opulence  descending  on 
it  by  inheritance,  always  at  compound  intorest,  and  ahvays 
largely  increased  by  fresh  acquirement  on  such  immensity 
of  standing  capital ;  —  opulent  in  that  bad  way  as  never 
Century  before  was  !  Which  had  no  longer  the  conscious- 
ness of  being  false,  so  false  had  it  grown  ;  and  was  so 
steeped  in  falsity,  and  impregnated  with  it  to  the  very 
bone,  that  —  in  fact  the  measure  of  the  thing  was  full,  and 
a  French  Revolution  had  to  end  it.  To  maintain  much 
veracity  in  such  an  element,  especially  for  a  king,  was  no 
doubt  doubly  remarkable.  But  now,  how  extricate  the  man 
from  his  Centui-y  ?  How  show  the  man,  who  is  a  Eeality 
worthy  of  being  seen,  and  yet  keep  his  Century,  as  a  H}"^- 
pocrisy  worthy  of  being  hidden  and  forgotten,  in  the  due 
abeyance  ? 

To  resuscitate  the  Eighteenth  Century,  or  call  into  men's 
view,  beyond  what  is  necessary,  the  poor  and  sordid  per- 
sonages and  transactions  of  an  epoch  so  related  to  us,  can 
be  no  purpose  of  mine  on  this  occasion.  The  Eighteenth 
Century,  it  is  well  known,  does  not  figure  to  me  as  a  lovely 
one ;  needing  to  be  kept  in  mind,  or  spoken  of  unneces 
sarily.  To  me  the  Eighteenth  Century  has  notliing  grand 
in  it,  except  that  grand  universal  Suicide,  named  French 
llevolution,  by  which  it  terminated  its  otherwise  most  worth- 
less existence  with  at  least  one  worthy  act ;  —  setting  fire 
to  its  old  home  and  self ;  and  going  up  in  flames  and  volcanic 
explosions,  in  a  truly  memorable  and  important  manner.  A 
very  fit  termination,  as  I  thankfully  feel,  for  such  a  Century. 
Century  spendthrift,  fraudulent-bankrupt ;  gone  at  length 
utterly  insolvent,  without  real  money  of  performance  in  its 
pocket,  and  the  shops  declining  to  take  hypocrisies  and  spe- 
ciosities  any  farther :  —  what  could  the  poor  Century  do, 
but  at  length  admit,  "Well,  it  is  so.  I  am  a  swindler- 
century,  and  have  long  been ;  having  learned  the  trick  of  it 
from  my  father  and  grandfather ;  knowing  hardly  any  trade 
but  that  in  false  bills,  which  I  thought  foolishly  might  last 
forever,  and  still  bring  at  least  beef  and  pudding  to  the 
favored  of  mankind.     And  behold  it  ends ;  and  I  am  a  de- 


y 


Chap.  I.  .*'PKOEM :  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  11 

tectcd  swindler,  and  have  nothing  even  to  eat.  What  re- 
mains but  that  I  blow  my  brains  out,  and  do  at  length  one 
true  action  ? "  Which  the  poor  Century  did ;  many  thanks 
to  it,  in  the  circumstances. 

For  there  was  need  once  more  of  a  Divine  Revelation  to 
fhe  torpid  frivolous  childi-en  of  men,  if  they  were  not  to  sink 
altogether  into  the  ape  condition.  And  in  that  whirlwind 
of  the  Universe,  —  lights  obliterated,  and  the  torn  wrecks  of 
Earth  and  Hell  hurled  aloft  into  the  Empyrean ;  black  whirl- 
wind, which  made  even  apes  serious,  and  di'ove  most  of 
them  mad,  —  there  was,  to  men,  a  voice  audible ;  voice  from 
the  heart  of  things  once  more,  as  if  to  say:  "Lying  is  not 
permitted  in  this  Universe.  The  wages  of  lying,  you  be- 
hold, are  death.  Lying  means  damnation  in  this  Universe ; 
ai;d  Beelzebub,  never  so  elaborately  decked  in  crowns  and 
mitres,  is  not  God  !  "  This  was  a  revelation  truly  to  be  named 
of  the  Eternal,  in  our  poor  Eighteenth  Century ;  and  has 
greatly  altered  the  complexion  of  said  Century  to  the  Histo- 
rian ever  since. 

'Whereby,  in  short,  that  Century  is  quite  confiscate,  fallen 
bankrupt,  given  up  to  the  auctioneers; — Jew-brokers  sort- 
ing out  of  it  at  this  moment,  in  a  confused  distressing  man- 
ner, what  is  still  valuable  or  salable.  And,  in  fact,  it  lies 
massed  up  in  our  minds  as  a  disastrous  wrecked  inanity, 
not  useful  to  dwell  upon ;  a  kind  of  dusky  chaotic  back- 
ground, on  which  the  figures  that  had  some  veracity  in 
them  —  a  small  company,  and  ever  growing  smaller  as  our 
demands  rise  in  strictness  —  are  delineated  for  us.  —  "  And 
yet  it  is  the  Century  of  our  own  Grandfathers  ?  "  cries  the 
reader.  Yes,  reader !  truly.  It  is  the  ground  out  of  which 
we  ourselves  have  sprung ;  whereon  now  we  have  our  im- 
mediate footing,  and  first  of  all  strike  down  our  roots  for 
nourishment ;  —  and,  alas,  in  large  sections  of  the  practical 
world,  it  (what  we  specially  mean  by  it)  still  continues 
flourishing  all  round  us  !  To  forget  it  quite  is  not  yet  pos- 
sible, nor  would  be  profitable.  What  to  do  with  it,  and  its 
forgotten  fooleries  and  "Histories,"  worthy  only  of  forget- 
ting ?  —  Well :  so  much  of  it  as  by  nature  adheres  ;  what  of 


12  BIRTH   AND    PARENTAGE.  Book  I. 

it  cannot  be  disengaged  from  our  Hero  and  his  operations : 
approximately  so  much,  and  no  more  !  Let  that  be  our  bar- 
gain in  regard  to  it. 


3.  English  Prepossessions. 

With  such  wagon-loads  of  Books  and  Printed  Records  as  exist 
on  the  subject  of  Friedrich,  it  has  always  seemed  possible,  even 
for  a  stranger,  to  acquire  some  real  understanding  of  him  ;  — 
though  practically,  here  and  now,  I  have  to  own,  it  proves 
difficult  beyond  conception.  Alas,  the  Books  are  not  cosmic, 
they  are  chaotic ;  and  turn  out  unexpectedly  void  of  instruc- 
tion to  us.  Small  use  in  a  talent  of  writing,  if  there  be  not 
first  of  all  the  talent  of  discerning,  of  loyally  recognizing  ;  of 
discriminating  what  is  to  be  written!  Book§  born  mostly 
of  Chaos  —  which  want  all  things,  even  an  Index  —  are  a 
painful  object.  In  sorrow  and  disgust,  you  wander  over  those 
multitudinous  Books  :  you  dwell  in  endless  regions  of  the 
superficial,  of  the  nugatory  :  to  your  bewildered  sense  it  is  as 
if  no  insight  into  the  real  heart  of  Friedrich  and  his  affairs 
were  anywhere  to  be  had.  Truth  is,  the  Prussian  Dryasdust, 
otherwise  an  honest  fellow,  and  not  afraid  of  labor,  excels  all 
other  Dryasdusts  yet  known;  I  have  often  sorrowfully  felt 
as  if  there  were  not  in  Nature,  for  darkness,  dreariness,  im- 
methodic  platitude,  anything  comparable  to  him.  He  writes 
big  Books  wanting  in  almost  every  quality;  and  does  not 
even  give  an  Index  to  them.  He  has  made  of  Friedrich's  His- 
tory a  wide-spread,  inorganic,  trackless  matter ;  dismal  to  your 
mind,  and  barren  as  a  continent  of  Brandenburg  sand !  — 
Enough,  he  could  do  no  other :  I  have  striven  to  forgive  him. 
X/et  the  reader  now  forgive  me ;  and  think  sometimes  what 
probably  my  raw-material  was  !  — 

Curious  enough,  Friedrich  lived  in  the  Writing  Era,  —  morn- 
ing of  that  strange  Era  which  has  grown  to  such  a  noon  for 
us  ;  —  and  his  favorite  society,  all  his  reign,  was  with  the  lit- 
erary or  writing  sort.  Nor  have  they  failed  to  write  about 
him,  they  among  the  others,  about  him  and  about  him ;  and  it 
is  notable  how  little  real  light,  on  any  point  of  his  existence 


Chap.  I.  J>ROEM :   ENGLISH  PREPOSSESSIONS.  13 

or  environment,  they  have  managed  to  communicate.  Dim  in- 
deed, for  most  part  a  mere  epigrammatic  sputter  of  darkness 
visible,  is  the  "picture"  they  have  fashioned  to  themselves 
of  Friedrich  and  his  Country  and  his  Century.  Men  not  "  of 
genius,"  apparently  ?  Alas,  no ;  men  fatally  destitute  of  true 
eyesight,  and  of  loyal  heart  first  of  all.  So  far  as  I  have  no- 
ticed, there  was  not,  with  the  single  exception  of  Mirabeau  for 
one  hour,  any  man  to  be  called  of  genius,  or  with  an  adequate 
power  of  human  discernment,  that  ever  personally  looked  on 
Friedrich.  Had  many  such  men  looked  successively  on  his 
History  and  him,  we  had  not  found  it  now  in  such  a  condition. 
Still  altogether  chaotic  as  a  History ;  fatally  destitute  even  of 
the  Indexes  and  mechanical  appliances :  Friedrich's  self,  and 
his  Country,  and  his  Century,  still  undeciphered ;  very  dark 
phenomena,  all  three,  to  the  intelligent  part  of  mankind. 

In  Prussia  there  has  long  been  a  certain  stubborn  though 
planless  diligence  in  digging  for  the  outward  details  of  Fried- 
rich's  Life-History;  though  as  to  organizing  them,  assorting 
them,  or  even  putting  labels  on  them;  much  more  as  to  the 
least  interpretation  or  human  delineation  of  the  man  and  his 
affairs,  —  you  need  not  inquire  in  Prussia.  In  France,  in 
England,  it  is  still  worse.  There  an  immense  ignorance  pre- 
vails even  as  to  the  outward  facts  and  phenomena  of  Fried- 
rich's  life  ;  and  instead  of  the  Prussian  no-interpretation,  you 
find,  in  these  vacant  circumstances,  a  great  promptitude  to  in- 
terpret. Whereby  judgments  and  prepossessions  exist  among 
us  on  that  subject,  especially  on  Friedrich's  character,  which 
are  very  ignorant  indeed. 

To  Englishmen,  the  sources  of  knowledge  or  conviction 
about  Friedi'ich,  I  have  observed,  are  mainly  these  two. 
First,  for  his  Public  Character :  it  was  an  all-important  fact, 
not  to  it,  but  to  this  country  in  regard  to  it.  That  George  II., 
seeing  good  to  plunge  head-foremost  into  German  Politics,  and 
to  take  Maria  Theresa's  side  in  the  Austrian-Succession  War 
of  1740-1748,  needed  to  begin  by  assuring  his  Parliament  and 
Newspapers,  profoundly  dark  on  the  matter,  that  Friedrich 
was  a  robber  and  villain  for  taking  the  other  side.     Which 


14  BIETH   AND   PARENTAGE.  Book  I. 

assurance,  resting  on  what  basis  we  shall  see  by  and  by, 
George's  Parliament  and  Newspapers  cheerfully  accepted, 
nothing  doubting.  And  they  have  re-echoed  and  reverberated 
it,  they  and  the  rest  of  us,  ever  since,  to  all  lengths,  down  to 
the  present  day  ;  as  a  fact  quite  agreed  upon,  and  the  prelimi- 
nary item  in  Friedrich's  cliaracter.  Eobber  and  villain  to 
begin  with ;  that  was  one  settled  point. 

Afterwards  when  George  and  Friedrich  came  to  be  allies, 
and  the  grand  fightings  of  the  Seven-Years  War  took  place, 
George's  Parliament  and  Newspapers  settled  a  second  point, 
in  regard  to  Friediich :  "  One  of  the  greatest  soldiers  ever 
born."  This  second  item  the  British  Writer  fully  admits  ever 
lince :  but  he  still  adds  to  it  the  quality  of  robber,  in  a  loose 
way;  —  and  images  to  himself  a  royal  Dick  Turpin,  of  the 
kind  known  in  Eeview- Articles,  and  disquisitions  on  Progress 
of  the  Species,  and  labels  it  Frederick  ;  very  anxious  to  collect 
new  babblement  of  lying  Anecdotes,  false  Criticisms,  hungry 
French  Memoirs,  which  will  confii-m  him  in  that  impossible 
idea.  Had  such  proved,  on  survey,  to  be  the  character  of 
Friedrich,  there  is  one  British  Writer  whose  curiosity  con- 
cerning him  would  pretty  soon  have  died  away ;  nor  could  any 
amount  of  unwise  desire  to  satisfy  that  feeling  in  fellow- 
creatures  less  seriously  disposed  have  sustained  him  alive,  in 
those  baleful  Historic  Acherons  and  Stygian  Fens,  where  he 
has  had  to  dig  and  to  fish  so  long,  far  away  from  the  upper 
light !  —  Let  me  request  all  readers  to  blow  that  sorry  chaff 
entirely  out  of  their  minds  ;  and  to  believe  nothing  on  the 
subject  except  what  they  get  some  evidence  for. 

Second  English  source  relates  to  the  Private  Character. 
Friedrich's  Biography  or  Private  Character,  the  English,  like 
the  French,  have  gathered  chiefly  from  a  scandalous  libel  by 
Voltaire,  wliich  used  to  be  called  Vie  Privee  du  Roi  de  Prusse 
(Private  Life  of  the  King  of  Prussia)  :  ^   libel   undoubtedly 

1  First  printed,  from  a  stolen  copy,  at  Geneva,  1784  ;  first  proved  to  be  Vol- 
taire's (which  some  of  his  admirers  had  striven  to  donht),  Paris,  1788  ;  stands 
avowed  ever  since,  in  all  the  Editions  of  his  Works  (ii.  9-113  of  the  Edition 
by  Bandouin  Freres,  97  vols.,  Paris,  1825-1834),  under  the  title  M^moires  pour 
sernrala  Vie  de  M.  de  Voltaire,  —  with  patches  of  repetition  in  the  thing 
called  Commentaire  Historique,  which  follows  ibid,  at  great  length. 


Chap.  I.  PROEM  :    ENGLISH   PREPOSSESSIONS.  15 

■written  by  Voltaire,  in  a  kind  of  fury  ;  but  not  intended  to  be 
published  by  liim  ;  nay  burnt  and  anniliilated,  as  he  afterwards 
imagined.  No  line  of  which,  that  cannot  be  otherwise  proved, 
has  a  right  to  be  believed ;  and  large  portions  of  which  can 
be  proved  to  be  wild  exaggerations  and  perversions,  or  even 
downright  lies,  —  written  in  a  mood  analogous  to  the  Frenzy 
of  John  Dennis.  This  serves  for  the  Biography  or  Private 
Character  of  Friedrich;  imputing  all  crimes  to  him,  natural 
and  unnatural  ;  —  ofi'ering  indeed,  if  combined  with  facts 
otherwise  known,  or  even  if  well  considered  by  itself,  a  thor- 
ough]^" flimsy,  incredible  and  impossible  image.  Like  that  of 
some  flaming  Devil's  Head,  done  in  phosphorus  on  the  walls 
of  the  black-hole,  hy  an  Artist  whom  you  had  locked  up  there 
(not  quite  without  reason)  overnight. 

Poor  Voltaire  wrote  that  Vie  Prluee  in  a  state  little  inferior 
to  the  Frenzy  of  John  Dennis,  —  how  brought  about  we  shall 
see  by  and  by.  And  this  is  the  Document  which  English 
readers  are  surest  to  have  read,  and  tried  to  credit  as  far  as 
possible.  Our  counsel  is.  Out  of  window  with  it,  he  that 
would  know  Friedrich  of  Prussia !  Keep  it  awhile,  he  that 
would  know  Francois  Arouet  de  Voltaire,  and  a  certain  numer- 
ous unfortunate  class  of  mortals,  whom  Voltaire  is  sometimes 
capable  of  sinking  to  be  spokesman  for,  in  this  world  !  —  Alas, 
go  where  you  will,  especially  in  these  irreverent  ages,  thp 
noteworthy  Dead  is  sure  to  be  found  lying  under  infinite  dung, 
no  end  of  calumnies  and  stupidities  accumulated  upon  him. 
For  the  class  we  speak  of,  class  of  "  flunkies  doing  saturnalia 
below  stairs,"  is  numerous,  is  innumerable ;  and  can  well  re- 
munerate a  "vocal  flunky"  that  will  serve  their  purposes  on 
such  an  occasion  !  — 

Friedrich  is  by  no  means  one  of  the  perfect  demigods ;  and 
there  are  various  things  to  be  said  against  him  with  good 
ground.  To  the  last,  a  questionable  hero ;  with  much  in  him 
which  one  could  have  wished  not  there,  and  much  wanting 
which  one  could  have  wished.  But  there  is  one  feature  which 
strikes  you  at  an  early  period  of  the  inquiry.  That  in  his 
way  he  is  a  Eeality ;  that  he  always  means  what  he  speaks ; 


10  BIRTH   AND   PARENTAGE.  Book  I. 

grounds  his  actions,  too,  on  what  he  recognizes  for  the  truth  ; 
and,  in  short,  has  nothing  whatever  of  the  Hypocrite  or 
Phantasm.  Which  some  readers  will  admit  to  be  an  extremely 
rare  })henomenou. 

We  perceive  that  this  man  was  far  indeed  from  trying  to 
deal  swindler-like  with  the  facts  around  him ;  that  he  honestly 
recognized  said  facts  wherever  they  disclosed  themselves,  and 
was  very  anxious  also  to  ascertain  their  existence  where  still 
hidden  or  dubious.  For  he  knew  well,  to  a  quite  uncommon 
degree,  and  with  a  merit  all  the  higher  as  it  was  an  unconscious 
one,  how  entirely  inexorable  is  the  nature  of  facts,  whether 
recognized  or  not,  ascertained  or  not ;  how  vain  all  cunning  of 
diplomacy,  management  and  sophistry,  to  save  any  mortal  wlio 
does  not  stand  on  the  truth  of  things,  from  sinking,  in  the 
long-run.  Sinking  to  the  very  mud-gods,  with  all  his  diploma- 
cies, possessions,  achievements  ;  and  becoming  an  unnamabh^ 
object,  hidden  deep  in  the  Cesspools  of  the  Universe.  This  I 
hope  to  make  manifest ;  this  which  I  long  ago  discerned  for 
myself,  with  pleasure,  in  the  ph3'siognomy  of  Friedrich  and 
his  life.  Which  indeed  was  the  first  real  sanction,  and  has  all 
along  been  my  inducement  and  encouragement,  to  study  Ids 
life  and  him.  How  this  man,  officially  a  King  withal,  com- 
ported himself  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,  and  managed  not  to 
be  a  Liar  and  Charlatan  as  his  Century  was,  deserves  to  be 
seen  a  little  by  men  and  kings,  and  may  silently  have  didactic 
meanings  in  it. 

He  that  was  honest  with  his  existence  has  always  meaning 
for  us,  be  he  king  or  peasant.  He  that  merely  shammed  and 
grimaced  with  it,  however  much,  and  with  whatever  noise  and 
trumpet-blowing,  he  may  have  cooked  and  eaten  in  this  world, 
cannot  long  have  any.  Some  men  do  cook  enormously  (let 
us  call  it  cooking,  what  a  man  does  in  obedience  to  his  hunger 
merely,  to  his  desires  and  passions  merely),  —  roasting  whole 
continents  and  populations,  in  the  flames  of  war  or  other  dis- 
cord ;  —  witness  the  Napoleon  above  spoken  of.  For  the  appe- 
tite of  man  in  that  respect  is  unlimited ;  in  truth,  infinite ;  and 
the  smallest  of  us  could  eat  the  entire  Solar  System,  had  we 
the  chance  given,  and  then  cry,  like  Alexander  of  ]Macedou, 


Chap.  I.  PROEM :   ENCOURAGEMENTS,   ETC.  17 

because  we  had  no  more  Solar  Systems  to  cook  and  eat.  It  is 
not  the  extent  of  the  man's  cookery  that  can  much  attach  me 
to  him ;  but  only  the  man  himself,  and  what  of  strength  he 
had  to  wrestle  with  the  mud-elements,  and  what  of  victory  he 
got  for  his  own  benefit  and  mine. 

4.  Encouragements,  Discouragements. 

French  E evolution  having  spent  itself,  or  sunk  in  France 
and  elsewhere  to  what  we  see,  a  certain  curiosity  reawakens 
as  to  what  of  great  or  manful  we  can  discover  on  the  other  side 
of  that  still  troubled  atmosphere  of  the  Present  and  immediate 
Past.  Curiosity  quickened,  or  which  should  be  quickened,  by 
the  great  and  all-absorbing  question.  How  is  that  same  ex- 
ploded Past  ever  to  settle  down  again  ?  Not  lost  forever,  it 
would  appear  :  the  New  Era  has  not  annihilated  the  old  eras : 
N^w  Era  could  by  no  means  manage  that ;  —  never  meant  that, 
had  it  known  its  own  mind  (which  it  did  not) :  its  meaning 
was .  and  is,  to  get  its  own  Avell  out  of  them  ;  to  readapt,  in  a 
I)initied  sliape,  the  old  eras,  and  appropriate  whatever  was  true 
ami  not  combustible  in  them  :  that  was  the  poor  New  Era's 
meaning,  in  the  frightful  explosion  it  made  of  itself  and  its 
possessions,  to  begin  with  ! 

And  the  question  of  (piestions  now  is :  "What  part  of  that 
exploded  Past,  the  ruins  and  dust  of  which  still  darken  all  the 
air,  will  continually  gravitate  back  to  us ;  be  reshaped,  trans- 
formed, readai)ted,  that  so,  in  new  figures,  under  new  con- 
ditions, it  may  enrich  and  nourish  us  again  ?  What  part  of 
it,  not  being  incombustible,  has  actually  gone  to  flame  and  gas 
in  the  huge  world-conflagration,  and  is  now  gaseous,  mounting 
aloft ;  and  will  know  no  beneficence  of  gravitation,  but  mount, 
and  roam  upon  the  waste  winds  forever,  —  Nature  so  ordering 
it,  in  spite  of  any  industry  of  Art  ?  This  is  the  universal 
question  of  afflicted  mankind  at  present ;  and  sure  enough  it 
will  be  long  to  settle. 

On  one  point  we  can  answer :  Only  what  of  the  Past  was 
true  will  come  back  to  us.  That  is  the  one  asbestos  which  sur- 
vives all  fire,  and  comes  out  purified  ;  that  is  still  ours,  blessed 

vn^     V.  2 


18  BIRTH  AND  PARENTAGE.  Book  I. 

be  Heaven,  and  only  that.  By  the  law  of  Nature  nothing  more 
than  that ;  and  also,  by  the  same  law,  nothing  less  than  that. 
Let  Art  struggle  how  it  may,  for  or  against,  —  as  foolish  Art 
is  seen  extensively  doing  in  our  time, — there  is  where  the 
limits  of  it  will  be.  In  which  point  of  view,  may  not  Fried- 
rich,  if  he  was  a  true  man  and  King,  justly  excite  some  curi- 
osity again;  nay  some  quite  peculiar  curiosity,  as  the  lost 
Crowned  lieality  there  was  antecedent  to  that  general  outbreak 
and  abolition  ?  To  many  it  appears  certain  there  are  to  be 
no  Kings  of  any  sort,  no  Government  more ;  less  and  less  need 
of  them  henceforth,  Xew  Era  having  come.  Which  is  a  very 
wonderful  notion ;  important  if  true ;  perhaps  still  more  im- 
portant, just  at  present,  if  untrue  !  My  hopes  of  presenting, 
in  this  Last  of  the  Kings,  an  exemplar  to  tuy  contemporaries, 
I  confess,  are  not  high. 

On  the  whole,  it  is  evident  the  difficulties  to  a  History  of 
Friedrich  are  great  and  many :  and  the  sad  certainty  is  at  last 
forced  upon  me  that  no  good  Book  can,  at  this  time,  especially 
in  this  country,  be  written  on  the  subject.  Wherefore  let  the 
reader  put  up  with  an  indifferent  or  bad  one  ;  he  little  knows 
how  much  worse  it  could  easily  have  been  !  —  Alas,  the  Ideal 
of  History,  as  my  friend  Sauerteig  knows,  is  ver}^  high ;  and 
it  is  not  one  serious  man,  but  many  successions  of  such,  and 
whole  serious  generations  of  such,  that  can  ever  again  build 
up  History  towards  its  old  dignity.  We  must  renounce  ideals. 
We  must  sadly  take  up  with  the  mournfulest  barren  realities  ; 
—  dismal  continents  of  Brandenburg  sand,  as  in  this  instance  ; 
mere  tumbled  mountains  of  marine-stores,  without  so  much  as 
an  Index  to  them ! 

Has  the  reader  heard  of  Sauerteig's  last  batch  of  Spring- 
wurzeln,  a  rather  curious  valedictory  Piece  ?  "  All  History  is 
an  imprisoned  Epic,  nay  an  imprisoned  Psalm  and  Prophecy," 
says  Sauerteig  there.  I  wish,  from  my  soul,  he  had  dismv- 
prisoned  it  in  this  instance  !  But  he  only  says,  in  magnilo- 
quent language,  how  grand  it  would  be  if  disimprisoned ;  — 
and  hurls  out,  accidentally  striking  on  this  subject,  the  follow- 
ing rough  sentences,  suggestive  though  unpractical,  with  which 
I  shall  conclude  :  — 


Chap.  I.  PROEM:   ENCOURAGEMENTS,   ETC.  19 

"  Schiller,  it  aj^pears,  at  one  time  thought  of  writing  an  Epic 
Poem  upon  Friedrlcli  the  Great,  'upon  some  action  of  Fried- 
rich's,'  Schiller  says.  Happily  Schiller  did  not  do  it.  By 
oversetting  fact,  disregarding  reality,  and  tumbling  time  and 
space  topsy-turvy,  Schiller  with  his  fine  gifts  might  no  doubt 
have  written  a  temporary  'epic  poem,'  of  the  kind  read  and 
admired  by  many  simple  persons.  But  that  would  have  helped 
little,  and  could  not  have  lasted  long.  It  is  not  the  untrue 
imaginary  Picture  of  a  man  and  his  life  that  I  want  from  my 
Schiller,  but  the  actual  natural  Likeness,  true  as  the  face  itself, 
nay  truer,  in  a  sense.  Which  the  Artist,  if  there  is  one,  might 
help  to  give,  and  the  Botcher  {Pfuscher)  never  can !  Alas, 
and  the  Artist  does  not  even  try  it ;  leaves  it  altogether  to  the 
Botcher,  being  busy  otherwise  !  — 

"  Men  surely  will  at  length  discover  again,  emerging  from 
these  dismal  bewilderments  in  which  the  modern  Ages  reel 
and  stagger  this  long  while,  that  to  them  also,  as  to  the  most 
ancient  men,  all  Pictures  that  cannot  be  credited  are  —  Pic- 
tures of  an  idle  nature  ;  to  be  mostly  swept  out  of  doors.  Such 
veritably,  were  it  never  so  forgotten,  is  the  law !  Mistakes 
enough,  lies  enough  will  insinuate  themselves  into  our  most 
earnest  portrayings  of  the  True :  but  that  we  should,  deliber- 
ately and  of  forethought,  rake  together  what  we  know  to  be 
not  true,  and  introduce  that  in  the  hope  of  doing  good  with 
it  ?  I  tell  you,  such  practice  was  unknown  in  the  ancient 
earnest  times ;  and  ought  again  to  become  unknown  except 
to  the  more  foolish  classes !  "  That  is  Sauerteig's  strange 
notion,  not  now  of  yesterday,  as  readers  know  :  —  and  he  goes 
then  into  "  Homer's  Iliad,"  the  "  Hebrew  Bible,"  "  terrible 
Hebrew  veracity  of  every  line  of  it ; "  discovers  an  alarming 
"  kinship  of  Fiction  to  lying ;  "  and  asks,  If  anybody  can  com- 
pute "  the  damage  we  poor  moderns  have  got  from  our  prac- 
tices of  fiction  in  Literature  itself,  not  to  speak  of  awfully 
higher  provinces  ?  Men  will  either  see  into  all  this  by  and 
by,"  continues  he ;  "  or  plunge  head  foremost,  in  neglect  of  all 
this,  whither  they  little  dream  as  yet !  — 

"But  I  think  all  real  Poets,  to  this  hour,  are  Psalmists 
and  Iliadists   after  their   sort :   and  have  in   them   a  divine 


20  BIRTH  AND  PARENTAGE  Book  I. 

impatience  of  lies,  a  divine  incapacity  of  living  among  lies. 
Likewise,  which  is  a  corollary,  that  the  highest  Shakspeare 
producible  is  properly  the  fittest  Historian  producible ;  — 
and  that  it  is  frightful  to  see  the  Gehhrte  Dummkopf 
[what  we  here  may  translate,  Dryasdtist]  doing  the  function 
of  History,  and  the  Shakspeare  and  the  Goethe  neglecting 
it.  '  Interpreting  events  ; '  interpreting  the  universally  visi- 
ble, entirely  tHdubitable  Eevelation  of  the  Author  of  this 
Universe  :  how  can  Dryasdust  interpret  such  things,  the  dark 
cliaotic  dullard,  who  knows  the  meaning  of  nothing  cosmic  or 
noble,  nor  ever  will  know  ?  Poor  wretch,  one  sees  what  kind 
of  meaning  he  educes  from  Man's  History,  this  long  while 
past,  and  has  got  all  the  world  to  believe  of  it  along  with 
him.  Unhappy  Dryasdust,  thrice-unhapi)y  world  that  takes 
Dryasdust's  reading  of  the  ways  of  God  !  But  av hat  else  was 
possible  ?  They  that  could  have  taught  better  were  engaged 
in  fiddling ;  for  which  there  are  good  wages  going.  And  our 
damage  therefrom,  our  damage,  —  yes,  if  thou  be  still  human 
and  not  cormorant,  —  perhaps  it  will  transcend  all  Californias, 
English  National  Debts,  and  show  itself  incomputable  in  con- 
tinents of  Bullion !  — 

"  Believing  that  mankind  are  not  doomed  wholly  to  dog- 
like annihilation,  I  believe  that  much  of  this  will  mend. 
I  believe  that  the  world  will  not  always  waste  its  inspired 
men  in  mere  fiddling  to  it.  That  the  man  of  rhythmic  nature 
will  feel  more  and  more  his  vocation  towards  the  Interpreta- 
tion of  Fact ;  since  only  in  the  vital  centre  of  that,  could  we 
once  get  thither,  lies  all  real  melody ;  and  that  he  will  become, 
he,  once  again  the  Historian  of  Events,  —  bewildered  Dryas- 
dust having  at  last  the  happiness  to  be  his  servant,  and  to 
have  some  guidance  from  him.  Which  will  be  blessed  indeed. 
For  the  present,  Dryasdust  strikes  me  like  a  hapless  Nigger 
gone  masterless  :  Nigger  totally  unfit  for  self-guidance ;  yet 
without  master  good  or  bad  ;  and  whose  feats  in  that  capacity 
no  god  or  man  can  rejoice  in. 

"  History,  with  faithful  Genius  at  the  top  and  faithful 
Industry  at  the  bottom,  will  then  be  capable  of  being  written. 
History  will  then  actually  be  wi'itten,  —  the  inspired  gift  of 


CiiAP.  II.       *•  FRIEDRICH'S   BIRTH.  21 

God  employing  itself  to  illuminate  the  dark  ways  of  God. 
A  thing  thrice-pressingly  needful  to  be  done  !  Whereby  the 
modern  Nations  may  again  become  a  little  less  godless,  and 
again  have  their  '  epics '  (of  a  different  from  the  Schiller  sort), 
and  again  have  several  things  they  are  still  more  fatally  in 
want  of  at  present !  "  — 

So  that,  it  would  seem,  there  will  gradually  among  man- 
kind, if  Friedrich  last  some  centuries,  be  a  real  Epic  made 
of  his  History  ?  That  is  to  say  (presumably),  it  will  become 
a  perfected  Melodious  Truth,  and  duly  significant  and  duly 
beatitiful  bit  of  Belief,  to  mankind  ;  the  essence  of  it  fairly 
evolved  from  all  the  chaff,  the  portrait  of  it  actually  given, 
and  its  real  harmonies  with  the  laws  of  this  Universe  brought 
out,  in  bright  and  dark,  according  to  the  God's  Fact  as  it  was  ; 
which  poor  Dryasdust  and  the  Newspapers  never  could  get 
sight  of,  but  were  always  far  from  !  — 

Well,  if  so,  —  and  even  if  not  quite  so,  —  it  is  a  comfort  to 
reflect  that  every  true  worker  (who  has  blown  away  chaff 
&c.),  were  his  contribution  no  bigger  than  my  own,  may  have 
brought  the  good  result  nearer  b}-  a  hand-breadth  or  two.  And 
so  we  will  end  these  preludiugs,  and  proceed  upon  our  Prob- 
lem, courteous  reader. 


CHAPTER  11. 

friedrich's  birth. 

Friedrich  of  Brandenburg-Hohenzollern,  who  came 
by  course  of  natural  succession  to  be  Friedrich  II.  of  Prussia, 
and  is  known  in  these  ages  as  Frederick  the  Great,  was  born 
in  the  palace  of  Berlin,  about  noon,  on  the  24th  of  January, 
1712.  A  small  infant,  but  of  great  promise  or  possibility ;  and 
thrice  and  four  times  welcome  to  all  sovereign  and  other 
persons  in  the  Prussian  Court,  and  Prussian  realms,  in  those 
cold  winter  days.  His  Father,  they  say,  was  like  to  have 
stifled  him  with  his  caresses,  so  overjoyed  was  the  man ;  or 


22  BIRTH   AND    PARENTAGE.  Book  I. 

at  least  to  have  scorched  him  in  the  blaze  of  the  fire ;  when 
happily  some  much  suitable!  female  nurse  snatched  this  little 
creature  from  the  rough  paternal  paws,  —  and  saved  it  for  tlie 
benefit  of  Prussia  and  mankind.  If  Heaven  will  but  please 
to  grant  it  length  of  life  !  For  there  have  already  been  two 
little  Princekins,  who  are  both  dead  ;  this  Friedrich  is  the 
fourth  child;  and  only  one  little  girl,  wise  Wilhelmina,  of 
almost  too  sharp  wits,  and  not  too  vivacious  aspect,  is  other- 
wise yet  here  of  royal  progeny.  It  is  feared  the  Hohenzollern 
lineage,  which  has  flourished  here  with  such  beneficent  effect 
for  three  centuries  now,  and  been  in  truth  the  very  making 
of  the  Prussian  Nation,  may  be  about  to  fail,  or  pass  into 
some  side  branch.  Which  change,  or  any  change  in  that  re- 
spect, is  questionable,  and  a  thing  desired  by  nobody. 

Five  years  ago,  on  the  deatli  of  the  first  little  Prince,  thero 
had  surmises  risen,  obscure  rumors  and  hints,  that  the  Princess 
Royal,  mother  of  the  lost  baby,  never  would  liave  healthy  chil- 
dren, or  even  never  have  a  child  more  :  upon  which,  as  there 
Avas  but  one  other  resource,  —  a  widowed  Graudfatlier,  namely, 
and  except  the  Prince  Royal  no  son  to  liim,  —  said  Grand- 
father, still  only  about  fifty,  did  take  the  necessary  steps :  but 
they  have  been  entirely  unsuccessful ;  no  new  son  or  child, 
only  new  affliction,  new  disaster  has  resulted  from  that  third 
marriage  of  his.  And  though  the  Princess  Royal  has  had  an- 
other little  Prince,  that  too  lias  died  within  the  year;  —  killed, 
some  say  on  the  other  hand,  by  the  noise  of  the  cannon  firing 
for  joy  over  it !  ^  Yes  ;  and  the  first  baby  Prince,  these  same 
parties  farther  say,  was  crushed  to  death  by  the  weighty  dress 
you  put  upon  it  at  christening  time,  especially  by  the  little 
crown  it  wore,  which  had  left  a  visible  black  mark  upon  the 
poor  soft  infant's  brow  !  In  short,  it  is  a  questionable  case  ; 
undoubtedly  a  questionable  outlook  for  Prussian  mankind  ; 
and  the  appearance  of  this  little  Prince,  a  third  trump-card 
in  the  Hohenzollern  game,  is  an  unusually  interesting  event. 

1  Forster,  Fnedn'ch  Wilhelml.,  Konig  von  Preiissen  (Potsdam,  1834),  i.  126 
(who  quotes  Morgenstern,  a  contemporary  reporter).  But  see  also  Preuss, 
Friedrich  der  Grosse  mit  seinen  Verwandten  und  Freunden  (Berlin,  1838),  pp. 
379-380. 


Chap.  II.  *  FRIEDRICH'S   BIRTH.  23 

The  joy  over  him,  not  in  Berlin  Palace  only,  but  in  Berlin 
City,  and  over  the  Prussian  Nation,  Avas  very  great  and  uni- 
versal ;  —  still  testified  in  manifold  dull,  unreadable  old  pam- 
phlets, records  official  and  volunteer,  —  which  were  then  all 
ablaze  like  the  bonfires,  and  are  now  fallen  dark  enough,  and 
hardly  credible  even  to  the  fancy  of  this  new  Time. 

The  poor  old  Grandfather,  Priedrich  I.  (the  first  Khiff  of 
Prussia),  —  for,  as  we  intimate,  he  was  still  alive,  and  not 
very  old,  thougli  now  infirm  enough,  and  laden  beyond  his 
strength  with  sad  reminiscences,  disappointments  and  cha- 
grins, —  had  taken  much  to  Wilhelmina,  as  she  tells  us  ;  ^  and 
would  amuse  himself  whole  days  with  the  pranks  and  prattle 
of  the  little  child.  Good  old  man :  he,  we  need  not  doubt, 
brightened  x\y  into  unusual  vitality  at  sight  of  this  invaluable 
little  Brother  of  hers  ;  through  whom  he  can  look  once  more 
into  the  waste  dim  future  with  a  flicker  of  new  hope.  Poor 
old  man  :  he  got  his  own  back  half-broken  by  a  careless  nurse 
lotting  him  fall ;  and  has  slightly  stooped  ever  since,  some 
fifty  and  odd  years  now  :  much  against  his  will ;  for  he  would 
fain  have  been  beautiful ;  and  has  struggled  all  his  days,  very 
hard  if  not  very  wisely,  to  make  his  existence  beautiful,  —  to 
make  it  magnificent  at  least,  and  regardless  of  expense ;  — 
and  it  threatens  to  come  to  little.  Courage,  poor  Grandfather : 
here  is  a  new  second  edition  of  a  Priedrich,  the  first  having 
gone  off  with  so  little  effect :  this  one's  back  is  still  unbroken, 
his  life's  seedfield  not  yet  filled  with  tares  and  thorns  :  who 
knows  but  Heaven  will  be  kinder  to  this  one  ?  Heaven  was 
much  kinder  to  this  one.  Him  Heaven  had  kneaded  of  more 
potent  stuff  :  a  mighty  fellow  this  one,  and  a  strange  ;  related 
not  only  to  the  Upholsteries  and  Heralds'  Colleges,  but  to  the 
Sphere-harmonies  and  the  divine  and  demonic  powers  ;  of  a 
swift  far-darting  nature  this  one,  like  an  Apollo  clad  in  sun- 
beams and  in  lightnings  (after  his  sort) ;  and  with  a  back 
which  all  the  world  could  not  succeed  in  breaking  !  —  Yes,  if, 
by  most  rare  chance,  this  were  indeed  a  new  man  of  genius, 
born  into  the  purblind  rotting  Century,  in  the  acknowledged 

1  M€moires  de  Fj€d^rique  Sophie  Wilhelmine  de  Prusse,  Margrave  de  Bareith, 
Saur  de  Fre'd€ric-le- Grand  (London,  1812),  i.  5. 


24  BIRTH   AND   PARENTAGE.  Book  I. 

rank  of  a  king  there,  —  man  of  genius,  that  is  to  say,  man  of 
originality  and  veracity  ;  capable  of  seeing  with  his  eyes,  and 
incapable  of  not  believing  what  he  sees  ;  —  then  truly  !  —  But 
as  yet  none  knows ;  the  poor  old  Grandfather  never  knew. 

Meanwhile  they  christened  the  little  fellow,  with  immense 
magnificence  and  pomp  of  apparatus  ;  Kaiser  Karl,  and  the 
very  Swiss  Republic  being  there  (by  proxy),  among  the  gos- 
sips ;  and  spared  no  cannon-volleyings,  kettle-drummiugs, 
metal  crown,  heavy  cloth-of-silver,  for  the  poor  soft  creature's 
sake ;  all  of  which,  however,  he  survived.  The  name  given 
him  was  Karl  Friedrich  (Charles  Frederick)  ;  Karl  perhaps, 
and  perhaps  also  not,  in  delicate  compliment  to  the  chief  gos- 
sip, the  above-mentioned  Kaiser,  Karl  or  Charles  VI.  ?  At 
any  rate,  the  Karl,  gradually  or  from  the  first,  dropped  alto- 
gether out  of  practice,  and  went  as  nothing :  he  himself,  or 
those  about  him,  never  used  it ;  nor,  except  in  some  dim  Eng- 
lish pamphlet  here  and  there,  have  I  met  with  any  trace  of  it. 
Friedrich  (Rich-in-Peace,  a  name  of  old  prevalence  in  the  Ho- 
henzollern  kindred),  which  he  himself  wrote  Frederic  in  his 
French  way,  and  at  last  even  Federic  (with  a  very  singular  sense 
of  euphony),  is  throughout,  and  was,  his  sole  designation. 

Sunday  31st  January,  1712,  age  then  precisely  one  week : 
then,  and  in  this  manner,  was  he  ushered  on  the  scene,  and 
labelled  among  his  fellow-creatures.  We  must  now  look  round 
a  little  ;  and  see,  if  possible  by  any  method  or  exertion,  what 
kind  of  scene  it  was. 


CHAPTER  III. 

FATHER   AND    MOTHER  :    THE    HANOVERIAN   CONNECTION. 

Friedrich  Wilhelm,  Crown-Prince  of  Prussia,  son  of 
Friedrich  I.  and  Father  of  this  little  infant  who  will  one 
day  be  Friedrich  II.,  did  himself  make  some  noise  in  the 
world  as  second  King  of  Prussia ;  notable  not  as  Friedrich's 
father  alone  ;  and  will  much  concern  us  during  the  rest  of  his 


CiLu..  III.        *  FATHER  AND  MOTHER.  25 

life.  He  is,  at  this  date,  in  his  twenty-fourth  year  :  a  thick- 
set, sturdy,  florid,  brisk  young  fellow ;  with  a  jovial  laugh  in 
him,  yet  of  solid  grave  ways,  occasionally  somewhat  volcanic ; 
much  given  to  soldiering,  and  out-of-door  exercises,  having  lit- 
tle else  to  do  at  present.  He  has  been  manager,  or,  as  it  were, 
Vice-King,  on  an  occasional  absence  of  his  Father ;  he  knows 
practically  what  the  state  of  business  is ;  and  greatly  disap- 
proves of  it,  as  is  thought.  But  being  bound  to  silence  on 
that  head,  he  keeps  silence,  and  meddles  with  nothing  politi- 
cal. He  addicts  himself  chiefly  to  mustering,  drilling  and 
practical  military  duties,  while  here  at  Berlin ;  runs  out,  often 
enough,  wife  and  perhaps  a  comrade  or  two  along  with  him, 
to  hunt,  and  take  liis  ease,  at  Wusterhausen  (some  fifteen  or 
twenty  miles  ^  southeast  of  Berlin),  where  he  has  a  residence 
amid  the  woody  moorlands. 

But  soldiering  is  his  grand  concern.  Six  years  ago,  sum- 
mer 1706,"^  at  a  very  early  age,  he  went  to  the  wars,  —  grand 
.Spanish-Succession  War,  which  was  then  becoming  very  fierce 
in  the  Netherlands ;  Prussian  troops  always  active  on  the 
M.arlborough-Eugene  side.  He  had  just  been  betrothed,  was 
not  yet  wedded ;  thought  good  to  turn  the  interim  to  advan- 
tage in  that  way.  Then  again,  spring  1709,  after  his  marriage 
and  after  his  Father's  marriage,  "  the  Court  being  full  of  in- 
trigues," and  nothing  but  silence  recommendable  there,  a  cer- 
tain renowned  friend  of  his,  Leopold,  Prince  of  Anhalt-Dessau, 
of  whom  we  shall  yet  hear  a  great  deal,  —  who,  still  only  about 
thirty,  had  already  covered  himself  with  laurels  in  those  wars 
(Blenheim,  Bridge  of  Casano,  Lines  of  Turin,  and  other  glo- 
ries), but  had  now  got  into  intricacies  with  the  weaker  sort, 
and  was  out  of  command,  —  agreed  with  Friedrich  Wilhelm 
that  it  would  be  well  to  go  and  serve  there  as  volunteers, 
since  not  otherwise.''  A  Crown-Prince  of  Prussia,  ought  he 
not  to  learn  soldiering,  of  all  things ;  by  every  opportunity  ? 

^  English  miles,  —  as  always  tmless  the  contrary  be  stated.  The  German 
Meile  is  about  five  miles  English ;  German  Stunde  about  three. 

2  Forster,  i.  116. 

3  Yarnhagen  von  Ense,  Fibst  Leopold  von  Anhalt-Dessau  (in  Biographische 
Denkmale,  2cl  edition,  Berlin,  1845),  p.  185.  Thaten  und  Leben  des  weltberuhm- 
ten  Fiirstens  Le.opoldi  von  Anhalt-Dessau  (Leipzig,  1742),  p.  73.     Forster,  i.  129. 


26  BIRTH   AND   PARENTAGE.  Book  >. 

Which  Friedrich  Wilhelm  did,  with  industry  ;  serving  zeah)us 
apprenticeship  under  Marlborough  and  Eugene,  in  tliis  man- 
ner ;  plucking  knowledge,  as  the  bubble  reputation,  and  all 
else  in  that  field  has  to  be  plucked,  from  the  cannon's  mouth. 
Friedrich  Wilholm  kept  by  MarllK)rough,  now  as  formerly  ; 
friend  Leopold  being  commonly  in  Eugene's  quarter,  who  well 
knew  the  worth  of  him,  ever  since  Blenheim  and  earlier. 
Friedrich  Willielm  saw  hot  service,  that  cami)aigu  of  1709; 
siege  of  Toumay,  and  far  more  ;  —  stood,  among  other  things, 
the  fiery  Battle  of  Malphupict,  one  of  the  torriblest  and  dead- 
liest feats  of  war  ever  done.  No  want  of  intrepidity  and 
rugged  soldier-virtue  in  the  Prussian  troops  or  their  Crown- 
Prince;  least  of  all  on  that  terrible  day,  11th  September, 
170J) ; — of  which  he  keeps  the  anniversary  ever  since,  and 
will  do  all  his  life,  the  doomsday  of  Malplaquet  always  a 
memorable  day  to  him.*  He  is  more  and  more  intimate  with 
Leopold,  and  loves  good  soldiering  In-yond  all  things.  Here 
at  Berlin  he  has  already  got  a  regiment  of  his  own,  talHsli  fine 
meu  ;  and  strives  to  make  it  in  all  points  a  very  pattern  of  a 
regiment. 

For  the  rest,  much  here  is  out  of  joint,  and  far  from  satis- 
factory to  him.  Seven  years  ago '  he  lost  his  own  brave 
Mother  and  her  love ;  of  which  we  must  si>eak  farther  by 
and  by.  In  her  steiul  he  has  got  a  fant;istic,  melancholic,  ill- 
natured  Stepmother,  with  whom  there  was  never  any  good  to 
be  done ;  who  in  fact  is  now  fairly  mad,  and  kept  to  her  own 
apartments.  lie  has  to  see  here,  and  say  little,  a  chagrined 
heart-worn  Father  flickering  painfully  amid  a  scene  much 
filled  with  expensive  futile  persons,  and  their  extremely  piti- 
ful cabals  and  mutual  rages;  scene  chiefly  of  pompous  inanity, 
and  ♦••he  art  of  solemnly  and  with  great  labor  doing  nothing. 
Such  waste  of  labor  and  of  means :  what  can  one  do  but  be 
silent  ?  The  other  year,  Preussen  (Prussia  Proper,  province 
lying  far  eastward,  out  of  sight)  was  sinking  under  pestilence 
and  black  ruin  and  despair :  the  Crown-Prince,  contrary  to 
wont,  broke  silence,  and  begged  some  dole  or  siibvention  for 
these  poor  people ;  but  there  was  nothing  to  be  had.  Nothing 
1  Forster,  i.  138.  2  jgt  February,  1705. 


CiiAP.  III.    *  FATHER  AND   MOTHER.  27 

in  the  treasury,  your  Eoyal  Highness  :  —  Preussen  will  shift 
for  itself ;  sublime  dramaturg}',  which  we  call  his  Majesty's 
Government,  costs  so  mueli  I  And  Treussen,  mown  away  by 
death,  lies  much  of  it  vacant  ever  since  ;  which  has  completed 
the  Crown-Prince's  disgust ;  and,  I  believe,  did  produce  some 
change  of  ministry,  or  otlier  ineffectual  expedient,  on  the  old 
Father's  part.  Upon  which  the  Crown-Prince  locks  up  his 
thoughts  again.  He  has  confused  whirlpools,  of  Court  in- 
trigues, ceremonials,  and  troublesome  fantasticalities,  to  steer 
amongst ;  which  he  much  dislikes,  no  man  more ;  having  an 
eye  and  heart  set  on  the  practical  only,  and  being  in  mind  as 
in  body  something  of  the  genus  robustum,  of  the  genus  ferox 
withal.  He  has  been  wedded  six  years ;  lost  two  children,  as 
we  saw ;  and  now  again  he  has  two  living. 

His  wife,  Sophie  Dorothee  of  Hanover,  is  his  cousin  as  well. 
She  is  brother's-thiughter  of  his  ^lother,  Sophie  Charlotte :  let 
the  reader  learn  to  discriminate  these  two  names,  Sophie 
Charlotte,  late  Queen  of  Prussia,  was  also  of  Hanover :  she 
probably  had  sometimes,  in  her  quiet  motherly  thought,  an- 
ticipated this  connection  for  him,  while  she  yet  lived.  It  is 
certain  Friedrich  AVilhelm  was  carried  to  Hanover  in  early 
childhood  :  his  Mother,  —  that  Sophie  Charlotte,  a  famed 
Queen  and  lady  in  her  day.  Daughter  of  Electress  Sophie,  and 
Sister  of  the  George  who  became  George  I.  of  England  by  and 
by,  —  took  him  thither  ;  some  time  about  the  beginning  of 
1603,  his  age  then  five  ;  and  left  him  there  on  trial ;  alleging, 
and  expecting,  he  might  have  a  better  breeding  there.  And 
this,  in  a  Court  where  Electress  Sophie  was  chief  lady,  and 
Elector  Ernst,  fit  to  be  chilled  Gentleman  Ernst,^  the  politest 
of  men,  was  chief  lord,  —  and  where  Leibnitz,  to  say  nothing 

^  "  Her  Highness  [the  Electress  Sophie]  has  the  character  of  the  merry 
debonnairo  Princess  of  Germany  ;  a  lady  of  extraordinary  virtues  and  accom- 
plishments ;  mistress  of  the  Italian.  French,  High  and  Low  Dutch,  and  Eng- 
lish languages,  which  she  speaks  to  perfection.  Her  husband  [Elector  Ernst] 
has  the  title  of  the  Gentleman  of  Germany ;  a  graceful  and,"  &c.  &c.  W.  Carr, 
Remarks  of  the  Governments  of  the  severall  Parts  of  Gemianie,  Denmark,  Sweed- 
Utnd  (Amsterdam,  IGSS),  p.  14".  See  also  Ker  of  Kersland  (still  more  em 
phatic  on  this  point,  sapius). 


28  r.IRTII    AND    PARENTAGE.  Book  I. 

of  lighter  notabilities,  was  liouvishing,  —  seemed  a  reasouable 
expectation,  >i'evertheless,  it  came  to  nothing,  this  articulate 
purpose  of  the  visit ;  though  perhaps  the  deeper  silent  purposes 
of  it  might  not  be  quite  unfultilled. 

Gentleman  Ernst  had  lately  been  made  "Elector"  (Kur- 
fiirst,  instead  of  Herzog),  —  his  Hanover  no  longer  a  mere 
Sovereign  Duchy,  but  an  Electorate  lienceforth,  new  "  Ninth 
Electorate/'  by  Ernst's  life-long  exertion  and  good  luck  ;  — 
which  has  spread  a  fine  radiance,  for  the  time,  over  court  and 
people  in  those  parts  ;  and  made  Ernst  a  happier  man  than 
ever,  in  his  old  age.  Gentleman  Ernst  and  Electress  Soi)hie, 
we  need  not  doubt,  were  glad  to  see  their  burly  I'russian 
grandson,  —  a  robust,  rather  mischievous  boy  of  five  years 
old;  — and  anything  that  brought  her  Daughter  oftener  about 
her  (an  only  Daughter  too,  and  one  so  gifted)  was  sure  to  be 
welcome  to  the  cheery  olil  Electress,  and  her  Leibnitz  and  her 
circle.  For  Sophie  Charlotte  was  a  bright  presence,  and  a 
favorite  with  sage  and  gay. 

Uncle  George  again,  "  Kurprinz  Georg  Ludwig  "  (Electoral 
Prince  and  IIeir-Ai>parent),  who  Ix^came  George  I.  of  England; 
he,  always  a  taciturn,  saturnine,  somewhat  grim-visaged  man, 
not  without  thoughts  of  his  own  but  mostly  inarticulate 
tlu)ughts,  was,  just  at  this  time,  in  a  deep  domestic  intricacy. 
Uncle  (leorge  the  Kurj)rinz  w;us  painfully  detecting,  in  these 
very  months,  that  his  august  Spouse  and  cousin,  a  brilliant  not 
uninjured  lady,  had  become  an  indignant  injuring  one  ;  that 
she  had  gone,  and  was  going,  far  astray  in  her  walk  of  life  ! 
Thus  all  is  not  railiance  at  Hanover  either,  ^Ninth  Elector 
though  we  are  ;  but,  in  the  soft  sunlight,  there  quivers  a 
streak  of  the  blackness  of  very  Erebus  withal.  Kurj^rinz 
George,  I  think,  though  he  too  is  said  to  have  been  good  to 
the  boy,  could  not  take  much  interest  in  this  burly  Nephew  of 
his  just  now  ! 

Sure  enough,  it  was  in  this  year  1693,  that  the  famed 
Konigsmark  tragedy  came  ripening  fast  towards  a  crisis  in 
Hanover ;  and  next  year  the  catastrophe  arrived.  A  most 
tragic  business ;  of  which  the  little  Boy,  now  here,  will  know 
more  one  day.     Perhaps  it  was  on  this  very  visit,  on  one  visit 


Cu.vi..  ill.      *  FATHER  AND   MOTHER.  29 

it  credibly  was,  that  Sophie  Charlotte  witnessed  a  sad  scene 
in  the  Schloss  of  Hanover :  high  Avords  rising,  where  low 
cooings  had  been  more  appropriate  ;  harsh  words,  mutually 
recriminative,  rising  ever  higher ;  ending,  it  is  thought,  in 
things,  or  menaces  and  motions  towards  things  (actual  box  on 
'tlie  ear,  some  call  it),  —  never  to  be  forgotten  or  forgiven! 
And  on  Sunday  1st  of  July,  1694,  Colonel  Count  Philip 
Kiinigsmark,  Colonel  in  the  Hanover  Dragoons,  was  seen  for 
the  last  time  in  this  world.  From  that  date,  he  has  vanished 
sudtlenly  underground,  in  an  inscrutable  manner  :  never  more 
shirfl  the  light  of  the  sun,  or  any  human  eye  behold  that  hand- 
some blackguard  man.  Not  for  a  hundred  and  tifty  years  shall 
human  creatures  know,  or  guess  with  the  smallest  certainty, 
wliat  has  become  of  him. 

And  shortly  after  Kcinigsraark's  disappearance,  there  is  this 
sad  phenomenon  visible  :  A  once  very  radiant  Princess  (witty, 
haughty-mitided,  beautiful,  not  wise  or  fortunate)  now  gone  all 
abhize  into  angry  tragic  conflagration  ;  getting  locked  into  the 
old  Castle  of  Ahlden,  in  the  muory  solitudes  of  Luneburg  He-ath: 
to  stay  there  till  she  die,  —  thirty  years  as  it  proved,  —  and 
go  into  ashes  and  angry  darkness  as  she  may.  Old  peasants, 
late  in  the  next  century,  will  remeiuber  that  they  used  to  see 
her  sometimes  driving  on  the  Heath, —  beautiful  lady,  long 
black  hair,  and  the  glitter  of  diamonds  in  it ;  sometimes  the 
reins  in  her  own  hand,  but  always  with  a  party  of  cavalry 
round  her,  and  their  swords  drawn.^  ''  Duchess  of  Ahlden," 
that  was  her  title  in  the  eclipsed  state.  Bom  Princess  of 
Zelle ;  by  marriage.  Princess  of  Hanover  (Kiirprinr.essin) ; 
would  have  been  Queen  of  England,  too,  had  matters  gone 
otherwise  than  they  did.  —  Her  name,  like  that  of  a  little 
Daughter  she  had,  is  Sophie  Dorothee  :  she  is  Cousin  and 
Divorced  "Wife  of  Kurprinz  George  ;  divorced,  and  as  it  were 
abolished  alive,  in  this  manner.  She  is  little  Friedrich  Wil- 
helm's  Aunt-in-law ;  and  her  little  Daughter  comes  to  be  his 
"Wife  in  process  of  time.  Of  him,  or  of  those  belonging  to 
him,  she  took  small  notice,  I  suppose,  in  her  then  mood,  the 

*  Die  Herzogin  von  Ahlden  (Leipzig,  1852).  p.  22.  Divorce  was,  28th  Decem- 
ber, 1694;  death,  13th  November,  1726,  —  age  then  60. 


30  BIRTH  AND   PARENTAGE.  Book  I. 

crisis  coming  on  so  fast.  In  her  happier  innocent  clays  she 
had  two  cliildren,  a  King  that  is  to  be,  and  a  Queen ;  George 
II.  of  England,  Sophie  Dorothea  of  Prussia;  but  must  not 
now  call  them  hers,  or  ever  see  them  again. 

This  was  the  Kijnigsmark  tragedy  at  Hanover ;  fast  ripen- 
ing towards  its  catastrophe  while  little  Friedrich  Wilhelm  was 
there.  It  has  been,  ever  since,  a  rumor  and  dubious  frightful 
mystery  to  mankind :  but  witlun  these  few  years,  by  curious 
accidents  (thefts,  discoveries  of  written  documents,  in  various 
countries,  and  diligent  stmdy  of  them),  it  has  at  length  become 
a  certainty  and  clear  fact,  to  those  who  are  curious  about  it. 
Fact  surely  of  a  rather  horrible  sort ;  — yet  better,  I  must  say, 
than  was  suspected :  not  quite  so  bad  in  the  state  of  fact  as  in 
that  of  rumor.  Crime  enough  is  in  it,  sin  and  folly  on  both 
sides ;  there  is  killing  too,  but  not  assassination  (as  it  turns 
out);  on  the  whole  there  is  nothing  of  atrocity,' or  nothing 
that  was  not  accidental,  unavoidable ;  —  and  there  is  a  certain 
greatness  of  decorum  on  the  part  of  those  Hanover  Princes 
and  official  gentlemen,  a  dei)th  of  silence,  of  polite  stoicism, 
which  deserves  more  praise  than  it  will  get  in  our  times. 
Enough  now  of  the  KiJnigsmark  tragedy  ;  ^  contemporaneous 

*  A  consiiloraMe  ilrc.iry  ma.«s  of  hooks,  p.implilet-s,  Iucnl)mtions,  false  all 
and  of  no  worth  or  of  los.'s,  have  afcuinulated  on  this  dark  suhject,  during 
the  last  hundred  ami  fifty  years  ;  nor  h.as  the  process  yet  sto])ped,  —  a.s  it  now 
well  might.  For  there  iiave  now  two  things  oi-eiirred  in  regard  to  it  First: 
In  the  year  1847,  a  Swedish  Professor,  named  Palmhlad,  groping  ahont  for 
other  ohjeets  in  the  College  Library  of  Lund  (wliieh  is  in  the  country  of  the 
Kcinigsraark  connections),  came  ujwn  a  Box  of  Old  I^etters,  —  Letters  undated, 
signed  only  with  initials,  .ind  very  enigmatic  till  well  searched  into,  —  which 
have  turned  out  to  be  the  very  Autographs  of  the  Princess  an<l  lior  Kimigsmark ; 
throwing  of  course  a  henceforth  indisputable  light  on  their  relation.  Second 
thing:  A  cautions  exact  old  gentleman,  of  diplomatic  habits  (understood  to 
be  "  Count  Von  Schulenburg-Klosterrode  of  Dresden  "),  has,  since  that  event, 
unweariedly  gone  into  the  whole  matter  ;  and  has  brayed  it  everywhere,  and 
pounded  it  small ;  sifting,  with  sublime  patience,  not  only  tluK^e  Swedish 
Autographs,  but  the  whole  mass  of  lying  books,  pamphlets,  hints  and  no- 
tices, old  and  recent ;  and  bringing  out  (truly  in  an  intricate  and  thrice-weari- 
some, but  for  the  first  time  in  an  authentic  way)  what  real  evidence  there  is. 
In  which  evidence  the  facts,  or  essential  fact,  lie  at  last  indisputable  enough. 
His  Book,  thick  Pamphlet  rather,  is  that  same  FIerzo</iii  ron  AhUlm  (Leipzig, 
1852)  cited  above.     The  dreary  wheelbarrowful  of  others  I  had  rather  not 


Chap.  UI.      »         FATHER  AND  MOTHER.  31 

« 

with  Friedrich  Wilhelm's  stay  at  Hanover,  but  not  otherwise 
much  related  to  him  or  his  doings  there. 

He  got  no  improvement  in  breeding,  as  we  intimated ;  none 
at  all ;  fought,  on  the  contrary,  with  his  young  Cousin  (after- 
wards our  George  II.),  a  boy  twice  his  age,  though  of  weaker 
.bone ;  and  gave  him  a  bloody  nose.  To  the  scandal  and  con- 
sternation of  the  French  Protestant  gentlewomen  and  court- 
dames  in  their  stiif  silks:  "Aliee,  your  Electoral  Highness  I  " 
This  had  been  a  rough  unruly  boy  from  the  first  discovery  of 
him.  At  a  very  early  stage,  he,  one  morning  while  the  nurses 
were  dressing  him,  took  to  investigating  one  of  his  shoe- 
buckles  ;  would,  in  spite  of  remonstrances,  slobber  it  about  in 
his  mouth  ;  and  at  length  swallowed  it  down, — beyond  mis- 
take ;  and  the  whole  world  cannot  get  it  up  !  Whereupon, 
wild  wail  of  nurses;  and  his  "Mother  came  screaming,"  poor 
mother:  —  it  is  the  same  small  shoe-buckle  which  is  still 
shown,  with  a  ticket  and  date  to  it,  ''  31  December,  1G92,"  in 
the  Berlin  KunstJcajnmer  ;  for  it  turned  out  harmless,  after  all 
the  screaming ;  and  a  few  grains  of  rhubarb  restored  it  safely 
to  the  light  of  day ;  henceforth  a  thrice-memorable  shoe- 
buckle.^ 

Another  time,  it  is  recorded,  though  Avith  less  precision  of 
detail,  his  Governess  the  Dame  ^Montbail  having  ordered  him 
to  do  something  which  was  intolerable  to  the  princely  mind, 
the  princely  mind  resisted  in  a  very  strange  way  :  the  princely 
body,  namely,  flung  itself  suddenly  out  of  a  third-story  win- 
dow, nothing  but  the  hands  left  within ;  and  hanging  on  there 
by  the  sill,  and  fixedly  resolute  to  obey  gravitation  rather  than 
^lontbail,  soon  brought  the  poor  lady  to  terms.  Upon  which, 
indeed,  he  had  been  taken  from  her,  and  from  the  women 
altogether,  as  evidently  now  needing  rougher  government. 
Always  an  unruly  fellow,  and  dangerous  to  trust  among  crock- 
ery. At  Hanover  he  could  do  no  good  in  the  way  of  breeding : 
sage  Leibnitz  himself,  with  his  big  black  periwig  and  large 

mention  again ;  bnt  leave  Count  von  Schulenburg  to  mention  and  describe 
them,  —  which  he  does  abundantly,  so  many  as  had  accumulated  up  to  that 
date  of   1852,  to  the  aftliction  more  or  less  of  sane  mankind, 

1  Forster,  i-  74.   Erman,  M^moirssde  Sophie  Charlotte  (Berlin,  1801),  p,  130. 


82  BIRTH  AND   PAEENTAGE.  Book  I. 

patient  nose,  could  have  put  no  metaphysics  into  such  a  boy. 
Sublime  Theodicee  (Leibuitzian  "justification  of  the  ways  of 
God  ")  was  not  an  article  this  individual  had  the  least  need  of, 
nor  at  any  time  the  least  value  for.  "  Justify  ?  What  doomed 
dog  questions  it,  then  ?  Are  you  for  Bedlam,  then  ?  "  —  and 
in  maturer  years  his  rattan  might  have  been  dangerous  !  For 
this  was  a  singular  individual  of  his  day ;  human  soul  still  in 
robust  health,  and  not  given  to  spin  its  bowels  into  cobwebs. 
He  is  known  only  to  have  quarrelled  much  with  Cousin 
George,  during  the  year  or  so  he  spent  in  those  parts. 

But  there  was  another  Cousin  at  Hanover,  just  one  other, 
little  Sophie  Dorothee  (called  after  her  mother),  a  few  months 
older  than  himself ;  by  all  accounts,  a  really  pretty  little  child, 
whom  he  liked  a  great  deal  better.  She,  I  imagine,  was  his 
main  resource,  while  on  this  Hanover  visit;  with  her  were 
laid  the  foundations  of  an  intimacy  which  ripened  well  after- 
wards. Some  say  it  was  already  settled  by  the  parents  that 
there  was  to  be  a  marriage  in  due  time.  Settled  it  could 
hardly  be ;  for  Wilhelmina  tells  us,^  her  Father  had  a  "  choice 
of  three  "  allowed  him,  on  coming  to  wed ;  and  it  is  otherwise 
discernible  there  had  been  eclipses  and  uncertainties,  in  the 
interim,  on  his  part.  Settled,  no ;  but  hoped  and  vaguely  pre- 
figured, we  may  well  suppose.  And  at  all  events,  it  has  actu- 
ally come  to  pass  ;  "  Father  being  ardently  in  love  with  the 
Hanover  Princess,"  says  our  Margravine,  "and  much  prefer- 
ring her  to  the  other  two,"  or  to  any  and  all  others.  Wedded, 
with  great  pomp,  28th  November,  1706 ;  ^  —  and  Sophie  Doro- 
thee, the  same  that  was  his  pretty  little  Cousin  at  Hanover 
twenty  years  ago,  she  is  mother  of  the  little  Boy  now  born 
and  christened,  whom  men  are  to  call  Frederick  the  Great  in 
coming  generations. 

Sophie  Dorothee  is  described  to  us  by  courtier  contempora- 
ries as  "  one  of  the  most  beautiful  princesses  of  her  day  :  " 
Wilhelmina,  on  the  other  hand,  testifies  that  she  was  never 
strictly  to  be  called  beautiful,  but  had  a  pleasant  attractive 

1  M^moires  de  la  Margrave  de  Bareith,  i.  1. 

2  Forster,  i.  117. 


Chap.  III.       *'  FATHER   AND    MOTHER.  33 

physiognomy;  which  may  be  considered  better  than  strict 
beauty.  Uncommon  grace  of  figure  and  look,  testifies  Wil- 
helmina ;  much  dignity  and  soft  dexterity,  on  social  occasions ; 
perfect  in  all  the  arts  of  deportment ;  and  left  an  impression 
on  you  at  once  kindly  and  royal.  Portraits  of  her,  as  Queen 
at  a  later  age,  are  frequent  in  the  Prussian  Galleries  ;  she  is 
painted  sitting,  where  I  best  remember  her.  A  serious,  comely, 
rather  plump,  maternal-looking  Lady  ;  something  thoughtful 
in  those  gray  still  eyes  of  hers,  in  the  turn  of  her  face  and  car- 
riage of  her  head,  as  she  sits  there,  considerately  gazing  out 
upon  a  world  which  would  never  conform  to  her  will.  De- 
cidedly a  handsome,  wholesome  and  affectionate  aspect  of  face. 
Hanoverian  in  type,  that  is  to  say,  blond,  florid,  slightly  ^>?'o- 
fuse  ;  —  yet  the  better  kind  of  Hanoverian,  little  or  nothing  of 
the  worse  or  at  least  the  worst  kind.  The  eyes,  as  I  say,  are 
gray,  and  quiet,  almost  sad ;  expressive  of  reticence  and  reflec- 
tion, of  slow  constancy  rather  than  of  s2oeed  in  any  kind.  One 
expects,  could  the  picture  speak,  the  querulous  sound  of  ma- 
ternal and  other  solicitude  ;  of  a  temper  tending  towards  the 
obstinate,  the  quietly  unchangeable  ;  —  loyal  patience  not 
wanting,  yet  in  still  larger  measure  royal  impatience  well  con- 
cealed, and  long  and  carefully  cherished.  This  is  what  I  read 
in  Sophie  Dorothee's  Portraits,  —  probably  remembering  what 
I  had  otherwise  read,  and  come  to  know  of  her.  She  too  will 
not  a  little  concern  us  in  the  first  part  of  this  History.  I  find, 
for  one  thing,  she  had  given  much  of  her  physiognomy  to 
the  Friedrich  now  born.  In  his  Portraits  as  Prince-Eoyal,  he 
strongly  resembles  her ;  it  is  his  mother's  face  informed  with 
youth  and  new  fire,  and  translated  into  the  masculine  gen- 
der :  in  his  later  Portraits,  one  less  and  less  recognizes  the 
mother. 

Friedrich  Wilhelm,  now  in  the  sixth  year  of  wedlock,  is 
still  very  fond  of  his  Sophie  Dorothee,  —  "  Fiechen  "  {FeeUn 
diminutive  of  Sophie),  as  he  calls  her ;  she  also  having,  and 
continuing  to  have,  the  due  wife's  regard  for  her  solid,  honest, 
if  somewhat  explosive  bear.  He  troubles  her  a  little  now  and 
then,  it  is  said,  with  whiffs  of  jealousy ;  but  they  are  whiffs 
only,  the  product  of  accidental  moodinesses  in  him,  or  of  tran- 


34  BIRTH   AND   PARENTAGE.  Book  I. 

sient  aspects,  misinterpreted,  in  the  court-life  of  a  young  and 
pretty  woman.  As  the  general  rule,  he  is  beautifully  good- 
humored,  kind  even,  for  a  bear ;  and,  on  the  whole,  they  have 
begun  their  partnership  under  good  omens.  And  indeed  we 
may  say,  in  spite  of  sad  tempests  that  arose,  they  continued  it 
under  such.  She  brought  him  gradually  no  fewer  than  four- 
teen children,  of  whom  ten  survived  him  and  came  to  ma- 
turity :  and  it  is  to  be  admitted  their  conjugal  relation,  though 
a  royal,  was  always  a  human  one;  the  main  elements  of  it 
strictly  observed  on  both  sides  ;  all  quarrels  in  it  capable  of 
being  healed  again,  and  the  feeling  on  both  sides  true,  however 
troublous.  A  rare  fact  among  royal  wedlocks,  and  perhaps  a 
unique  one  in  that  epoch. 

The  young  couple,  as  is  natural  in  their  present  position, 
have  many  eyes  upon  them,  and  not  quite  a  paved  path  in 
this  confused  court  of  Friedrich  I.  But  they  are  true  to  one 
another ;  they  seem  indeed  to  have  held  well  aloof  from  all 
public  business  or  private  cabal ;  and  go  along  silently  ex- 
pecting, and  perhaps  silently  resolving  this  and  that  in  the 
future  tense ;  but  with  moderate  immunity  from  paternal  or 
other  criticisms,  for  the  present.  The  Crown-Prince  drills  or 
hunts,  with  his  Grumkows,  Anhalt-Dessaus :  these  are  harm- 
less employments ;  —  and  a  man  may  have  within  his  own 
head  what  thoughts  he  pleases,  without  offence  so  long  as  he 
keeps  them  there.  Friedrich  the  old  Grandfather  lived  only 
thirteen  months  after  the  birth  of  his  grandson:  Friedrich 
Wilhelm  was  then  King ;  thoughts  then,  to  any  length,  could 
become  actions  on  the  part  of  Friedrich  Wilhelm. 


Chap.  IV.  FATHER'S    MOTHER.  85 


CHAPTER   IV. 
father's  mother. 

Friedrich  Wilhelm's  Mother,  as  we  hinted,  did  not  live 
to  see  this  marriage  which  she  had  forecast  in  her  maternal 
heart.  She  died,  rather  suddenly,  in  1705,^  at  Hanover, 
whither  she  had  gone  on  a  visit ;  shortly  after  parting  with 
this  her  one  boy  and  child,  Friedrich  Wilhelm,  who  is  then 
about  seventeen ;  whom  she  had  with  effort  forced  herself  to 
send  abroad,  that  he  might  see  the  world  a  little,  for  the  first 
time.  Her  sorrow  on  this  occasion  has  in  it  something  beauti- 
ful, in  so  bright  and  gay  a  woman :  shows  us  the  mother  strong 
in.  her,  to  a  touching  degree.  The  rough  cub,  in  whom  she 
noticed  rugged  perverse  elements,  "tendencies  to  avarice," 
and  a  want  of  princely  graces,  and  the  more  brilliant  qualities 
in  mind  and  manner,  had  given  her  many  thoughts  and  some 
uneasy  ones.  But  he  was  evidently  all  she  had  to  love  in  the 
world  ;  a  rugged  creature  inexpressibly  precious  to  her.  For 
days  after  his  departure,  she  had  kept  solitary;  busied  with 
little ;  indulging  in  her  own  sad  reflections  without  stint. 
Among  the  papers  she  had  been  scribbling,  there  was  found 
one  slip  with  a  heart  sketched  on  it,  and  round  the  heart 
"  Parti  "  (Gone)  :  My  heart  is  gone  !  —  poor  lady,  and  after 
what  a  jewel !  But  Nature  is  very  kind  to  all  children  and 
to  all  mothers  that  are  true  to  her. 

Sophie  Charlotte's  deep  sorrow  and  dejection  on  this  part- 
ing was  the  secret  herald  of  fate  to  herself.  It  had  meant  ill 
health  withal,  and  the  gloom  of  broken  nerves.  All  autumn 
and  into  winter  she  had  felt  herself  indefinitely  unwell ;  she 
determined,  however,  on  seeing  Hanover  and   her   good  old 

1  1st  February  (Erman,  p.  241;  Porster,  i.  114)  :  bom,  20th  October,  16G8; 
wedded,  28th  September,  16S4;  died,  1st  February,  1705. 


36  BIRTH  AND   PARENTAGE.  Book  I 

Mother  at  the  usual  time.  The  gloomy  sorrow  over  Friedrich 
Wilhelm  had  beeu  the  premonition  of  a  sudden  illness  which 
seized  her  on  the  road  to  Hanover,  some  five  months  after- 
wards, and  which  ended  fatally  in  that  city.  Her  death  was 
not  in  the  light  style  Friedrich  her  grandson  ascribes  to  it ;  ^ 
she  died  without  epigram,  and  though  in  perfect  simple  cour- 
age, with  the  reverse  of  levity. 

Here,  at  first  hand,  is  the  specific  account  of  that  event ; 
which,  as  it  is  brief  and  indisputable,  we  may  as  well  fish 
from  the  imbroglios,  and  render  legible,  to  counteract  such 
notions,  and  illuminate  for  moments  an  old  scene  of  things. 
The  writing,  apparently  a  quite  private  piece,  is  by  "  M.  de  la 
Bergerie,  Pastor  of  the  French  Church  at  Hanover,"  respecta- 
ble Edict-of-Nantes  gentleman,  who  had  been  called  in  on  the 
occasion  ;  —  gives  an  authentic  momentary  picture,  though  a 
feeble  and  vacant  one,  of  a  locality  at  that  time  very  interest- 
ing to  Englishmen.     M.  de  la  Bergerie  privately  records  :  — 

*'  The  night  between  the  last  of  January  and  the  first  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1705,  between  one  and  two  o'clock  in  the  morning,  I  was 
called  to  the  Queen  of  Prussia,  who  was  then  dangerously  ill. 

"Entering  the  room,  I  threw  myself  at  the  foot  of  her  bed, 
testifying  to  her  in  words  my  profound  grief  to  see  her  in 
this  state.  After  which  I  took  occasion  to  say,  'She  might 
know  now  that  Kings  and  Queens  are  mortal  equally  with  all 
other  men ;  and  that  they  are  obliged  to  appear  before  the 
throne  of  the  majesty  of  God,  to  give  an  account  of  their 
deeds  done,  no  less  than  the  meanest  of  their  subjects.'  To 
which  her  Majesty  replied,  '  I  know  it  well  (Je  le  sais  hieri)? 
—  I  went  on  to  say  to  her,  '  Madam,  your  Majesty  must  also 
recognize  in  this  hour  the  vanity  and  nothingness  of  the 
things  here  below,  for  which,  it  may  be,  you  have  had  too 
much  interest ;  and  the  importance  of  the  things  of  Heaven, 
Avhich  perhaps  you  have  neglected  and  contemned.'  There- 
upon the  Queen  answered,  'True  (Cela  est  vrai)  !^  'Neverthe- 
less, Madam,'  said  I,  '  does  not  your  Majesty  place  really 
your  trust  in  God  ?     Do  you  not  very  earnestly  (hien  serieuse- 

1  Memoires  de  Brandehourg  (Preuss's  Edition  of  (Eiivres,  Berlin,  1847  et 
seqq.),  i.  112. 


Chap.  IV.  FATHER'S   MOTHER.  37 

tnent)  crave  pardon  of  Him  for  all  the  sins  you  have  com- 
mitted ?  Do  not  you  fly  (ri'a-t-elle  pas  recours)  to  the  blood 
and  merits  of  Jesus  Christ,  without  which  it  is  impossible 
for  us  to  stand  before  God  ? '  The  Queen  answered,  '  Old 
(Yes),'  —  While  this  was  going  on,  her  Brother,  Duke  Ernst 
August,  came  into  the  Queen's  room,"  —  perhaps  with  his 
eye  upon  me  and  my  motions  ?  "  As  they  wished  to  speak 
together,  I  withdrew  by  order." 

This  Duke  Ernst  August,  age  now  31,  is  the  youngest 
Brother  of  the  family ;  there  never  was  any  Sister  but  this 
dying  one,  who  is  four  years  older.  Ernst  August  has  some 
tincture  of  soldiership  at  this  time  (jMarlborough  Wars,  and 
the  like),  as  all  his  kindred  had ;  but  ultimately  he  got  the 
Bishopric  of  Osnabriick,  that  singular  spiritual  heirloom,  or 
7ia7/-heirloom  of  the  family ;  and  there  lived  or  vegetated 
without  noise.  Poor  soul,  he  is  the  same  Bishop  of  Osna- 
briick, to  whose  house,  twenty-two  years  hence,  George  I., 
struck  by  apoplexy,  was  breathlessly  galloping  in  the  summer 
midnight,  one  wish  now  left  in  him,  to  be  with  his  brother ;  — 
and  arrived  dead,  or  in  the  article  of  death.  That  was  another 
scene  Ernst  August  had  to  witness  in  his  life.  I  suspect  him 
at  present  of  a  thought  that  M.  de  la  Bergerie,  with  his  pious 
commonplaces,  is  likely  to  do  no  good.  Other  trait  of  Ernst 
August's  life ;  or  of  the  Schloss  of  Hanover  that  night,  —  or 
where  the  sorrowing  old  Mother  sat,  invincible  though  weep- 
ing, in  some  neighboring  room,  —  I  cannot  give.  M.  de  la 
Bergerie  continues  his  narrative  :  — 

"Some  time  after,  I  again  presented  myself  before  the 
Queen's  bed,  to  see  if  I  could  have  occasion  to  speak  to  her 
on  the  matter  of  her  salvation.  But  Monseigneur  the  Duke 
Ernst  August  then  said  to  me.  That  it  was  not  necessary ;  that 
the  Queen  was  at  peace  with  her  God  {etait  Men  avec  son 
Dieu).^^  —  Which  will  mean  also  that  M.  de  la  Bergerie  may 
go  home  ?     However,  he  still  writes  :  — 

"  Kext  day  the  Prince  told  me.  That  observing  I  was  come 
near  the  Queen's  bed,  he  had  asked  her  if  she  wished  I  should 
still  speak  to  her ;  but  she  had  replied,  that  it  was  not  neces- 
sary in  any  way  (jmUement),  that  she  already  knew  all  that 

.1  i\  i\  ^\  -'■- 
'i  y  J  il  O 


38  BIRTH  AND   PARENTAGE.  Bcok  I. 

could  be  said  to  her  on  such  an  occasion  ;  that  she  had  said  it 
to  herself,  that  she  was  still  saying  it,  and  that  she  hoped  to 
be  well  with  her  God. 

"  In  the  end  a  faint  coming  upon  the  Queen,  which  was 
Avhat  terminated  her  life,  I  threw  myself  on  my  knees  at  the 
other  side  of  her  bed,  the  curtains  of  which  were  open ;  and 
I  called  to  God  with  a  loud  voice, '  That  He  would  rank  his 
angels  round  this  great  Princess,  to  guard  her  from  the  insults 
of  Satan  ;  that  He  would  have  pity  on  her  soul ;  that  He  would 
wash  her  with  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  her  heavenly  Spouse ; 
that,  having  forgiven  her  all  her  sins.  He  would  receive  her 
to  his  glory.'  And  in  that  moment  she  expired."^  —  Age 
thirty-six  and  some  months.  Only  Daughter  of  Electress 
Sophie ;  and  Father's  Mother  of  Frederick  the  Great. 

She  was,  in  her  time,  a  highly  distinguished  woman ;  and 
has  left,  one  may  say,  something  of  her  likeness  still  trace- 
able in  the  Prussian  Nation,  and  its  form  of  culture,  to  this 
day.  Charlottenburg  (Charlotte's-town,  so  called  by  the 
sorrowing  Widower),  where  she  lived,  shone  with  a  much- 
admired  French  light  under  her  presidency,  —  French  essen- 
tially, Versaillese,  Sceptico-Calviuistic,  reflex  and  direct,  — 
illuminating  the  dark  North ;  and  indeed  has  never  been  so 
bright  since.  The  liglit  was  not  what  we  can  call  inspired  ; 
lunar  rather,  not  of  the  genial  or  solar  kind :  but,  in  good  truth, 
it  was  the  best  then  going ;  and  Sophie  Charlotte,  who  was 
her  Mother's  daughter  in  this  as  in  other  respects,  had  made 
it  her  own.  They  were  deep  in  literature,  these  two  Koyal 
Ladies ;  especially  deep  in  French  theological  polemics,  with 
a  strong  leaning  to  the  rationalist  side. 

They  had  stopped  in  Eotterdam  once,  on  a  certain  journey 
homewards  from  Flanders  and  the  Baths  of  Aix-la-Chapelle, 
to  see  that  admirable  sage,  the  doubter  Bayle.  Their  sublime 
messenger  roused  tlie  poor  man,  in  his  garret  there,  in  the 
Bompies,  —  after  dark  :  but  he  had  a  headache  that  night ; 
Avas  in  bed,  and  could  not  come.  He  followed  them  next  day  ; 
leaving  his  paper  imbroglios,  his  historical,  philosophical,  anti- 
theological  marine-stores ;  and  suspended  his  never-ending 
1  Erman,  p   242. 


Chap.  IV.  FATHER'S    MOTHER.  39 

scribble,  on  their  belialf ;  —  but  would  not  accept  a  pension, 
and  give  it  up.^ 

They  were  shrewd,  noticing,  intelligent  and  lively  women  ; 
persuaded  that  there  was  some  nobleness  for  man  beyond  what 
the  tailor  imparts  to  him  ;  and  even  very  eager  to  discover  it, 
had  they  known  how.  In  these  very  days,  while  our  little 
Friedrich  at  Berlin  lies  in  his  cradle,  sleeping  most  of  his 
time,  sage  Leibnitz,  a  rather  weak  but  hugely  ingenious  old 
gentleman,  with  bright  eyes  and  long  nose,  with  vast  black 
peru]>:e  and  bandy  legs,  is  seen  daily  in  the  Linden  Avenue 
at  Hanover  (famed  Linden  Alley,  leading  from  Town  Palace 
to  Country  one,  a  couple  of  miles  long,  rather  disappointing 
when  one  sees  it),  daily  driving  or  walking  towards  Herren- 
hausen,  where  the  Court,  where  the  old  Electress  is,  who  will 
have  a  touch  of  dialogue  with  him  to  diversify  her  day.  Not 
very  edifying  dialogue,  we  may  fear ;  yet  once  more,  the  best 
that  can  be  had  in  present  circumstances.  Here  is  some  lunar 
reflex  of  Versailles,  which  is  a  polite  court ;  direct  rays  there 
are. from  the  oldest  written  Gospels  and  the  newest ;  from  the 
great  unwritten  Gospel  of  the  Universe  itself ;  and  from  one's 
own  real  effort,  more  or  less  devout,  to  read  all  these  aright. 
Let  us  not  condemn  that  poor  French  element  of  Eclecticism, 
Scepticism,  Tolerance,  Theodicea,  and  Bayle  of  the  Bompies 
versus  the  College  of  Saumur.  Let  us  admit  that  it  was  prof- 
itable, at  least  that  it  was  inevitable ;  let  us  pity  it,  and  be 
thankful  for  it,  and  rejoice  that  we  are  well  out  of  it.  Scepti- 
cism, which  is  there  beginning  at  the  very  top  of  the  world- 
tree,  and  has  to  descend  through  all  the  boughs  with  terrible 
results  to  mankind,  is  as  yet  pleasant,  tinting  the  leaves  with 
fine  aiTtumnal  red. 

Sophie  Charlotte  partook  of  her  Mother's  tendencies  ;  and 
carried  them  with  her  to  Berlin,  there  to  be  expanded  in  many 
ways  into  ampler  fulfilment.  She  too  had  the  sage  Leibnitz 
often  with  her,  at  Berlin;  no  end  to  her  questionings  of  him  ; 
eagerly  desirous  to  draw  water  from  that  deep  well,  —  a  wet 
rope,  with  cobwebs  sticking  to  it,  too  often  all  she  got  j  end- 
less rope,  and  the  bucket  never  coming  to  view.  Which,  how- 
1  Erman.pp.  Ill,  112.     Date  is  1700  (late  in  the  autumn  probably). 


40  BIllTH  AND  PARENTAGE.  Book  I. 

ever,  she  took  patiently,  as  a  thing  according  to  Nature.  She 
had  her  learned  Beausobres  and  other  Eeverend  Edict-of- 
Nantes  gentlemen,  famed  Berlin  divines ;  whom,  if  any  Pa- 
pist notability,  Jesuit  ambassador  or  the  like,  happened  to  be 
there,  she  would  set  disputing  with  him,  in  the  Soiree  at  Char- 
lottenburg.  She  could  right  well  preside  over  such  a  battle  of 
the  Cloud-Titans,  and  conduct  the  lightnings  softly,  without 
explosions.  There  is  a  pretty  and  very  characteristic  Letter 
of  hers,  still  pleasant  to  read,  though  turning  on  theologies 
now  fallen  dim  enough  ;  addressed  to  Father  Vota,  the  famous 
Jesuit,  King's-confessor,  and  diplomatist,  from  Warsaw,  who 
had  been  doing  his  best  in  one  such  rencontre  before  her  Maj- 
esty (date  March,  1703),  —  seemingly  on  a  series  of  evenings, 
in  the  intervals  of  his  diplomatic  business ;  the  Beausobre 
champions  being  introduced  to  him  successively,  one  each 
evening,  by  Queen  Sophie  Charlotte.  To  all  appearance  the 
fencing  had  been  keen ;  the  lightnings  in  need  of  some  dex- 
terous conductor.  Vota,  on  his  way  homeward,  had  written  to 
apologize  for  the  sputterings  of  fire  struck  out  of  him  in  cer- 
tain pinches  of  the  combat ;  says.  It  was  the  rough  handling 
the  Primitive  Fathers  got  from  these  Beausobre  gentlemen, 
who  indeed  to  me,  "\^ota  in  person,  under  your  Majesty's  fine 
presidency,  were  politeness  itself,  though  they  treated  the  Fa- 
thers so  ill.  Her  jNIajesty,  with  beautiful  art,  in  this  Letter, 
smooths  the  raven  plumage  of  Vota;  — and,  at  the  same  time, 
throws  into  him,  as  with  invisible  needle-points,  an  excellent 
dose  of  acupuncturation,  on  the  subject  of  the  Primitive  Fa- 
thers and  the  Ecumenic  Councils,  on  her  own  score.  Let  us 
.'-^ive  some  Excerpt,  in  condensed  state  :  — 

"  How  can  St.  Jerome,  for  example,  be  a  key  to  Scripture  ?  " 
she  insinuates  ;  citing  from  Jerome  this  remarkable  avowal  of 
his  method  of  composing  books;  "especially  of  his  method 
in  that  Book,  Commentary  on  the  Galatians,  where  he  accuses 
both  Peter  and  Paul  of  simulation  and  even  of  hypocrisy. 
The  great  St.  Augustine  has  been  charging  him  with  this  sad 
fact,"  says  her  Majesty,  who  gives  chapter  and  verse ;  ^  "  and 
Jerome  answers :  '  I  followed  the  Commentaries  of  Origen, 
1  "  Epist.  28%  edit.  Paris."    And  Jerome's  answer,  "  Ibid.  Epist.  76*." 


Chap.  IV^.  *;  FATllElt'S    ^MOTHER.  41 

of  "  —  five  or  six  different  persons,  who  turned  out  mostly 
to  be  heretics  before  Jerome  had  quite  done  with  them  in 
coming  years  !  —  "  '  And  to  confess  the  honest  truth  to  you,' 
continues  Jerome,  '  I  read  all  that ;  and  after  having  crammed 
my  head  with  a  great  many  things,  I  sent  for  my  amanuensis, 
and  dictated  to  him  now  my  own  thoughts,  now  those  of 
others,  without  much  recollecting  the  order,  nor  sometimes 
the  words,  nor  even  the  sense.'  In  another  place  (in  the 
Book  itself  farther  on^),  he  says:  'I  do  not  myself  write;  I 
have  an  amanuensis,  and  I  dictate  to  him  what  comes  into  my 
moutlj.  If  I  wish  to  reflect  a  little,  to  say  the  thing  better 
or  a  better  thing,  he  knits  his  brows,  and  the  whole  look  of 
liim  tells  me  suihciently  that  he  cannot  endure  to  wait.' "  — 
Here  is  a  sacred  old  gentleman,  whom  it  is  not  safe  to_  depend 
on  for  interpreting  the  Scriptures,  thinks  her  Majesty ;  but 
does  not  say  so,  leaving  Father  Vota  to  his  reflections. 

Then  again,  coming  to  Councils,  she  quotes  St.  Gregory 
Nazianzen  upon  him ;  who  is  truly  dreadful  in  regard  to 
Ecumenic  Councils  of  the  Church,  —  and  indeed  may  awaken 
thoughts  of  Deliberative  Assemblies  generally,  in  the  modern 
constitutional  mind.  "  He  says,^  !ISro  Council  ever  was  success- 
ful ;  so  many  mean  human  passions  getting  into  conflagration 
there ;  with  noise,  with  violence  and  uproar,  '  more  like  those 
of  a  tavern  or  still  worse  place,'  —  these  are  his  words.  He, 
for  his  own  share,. had  resolved  to  avoid  all  such  'rendezvous- 
ing of  the  Geese  and  Cranes,  flocking  together  to  throttle  and 
tatter  one  another  in  that  sad  manner,'  Nor  had  St.  Theodo- 
ret  much  opinion  of  the  Council  of  iSTice,  except  as  a  kind  of 
miracle.  '  iSTothing  good  to  be  expected  from  Councils,'  says 
he,  '  except  when  God  is  pleased  to  interpose,  and  destroy  the 
machinery  of  the  Devil.'  " 

—  With  more  of  the  like  sort ;  all  delicate,  as  invisible 
needle-points,  in  her  Majesty's  hand.^     What  is  Father  Vota 

1  "  Commentary  on  the  Galatinns,  chap,  iii." 

^  "  Grecj.Nazi(in.de  Vita  sua." 

3  Letter  undated  (datable  "  Liitzelburg,  March,  1703,")  is  to  be  found 
entire,  with  all  its  adjuncts,  in  Erman,  pp.  246-255.  It  was  subsequently 
translated  by  Toland,  and  published  here,  as  an  excellent  Polemical  Piece, — 


42  BIRTH  AND   PARENTAGE.  Book  I 

to  say  ?  —  The  modern  reader  looks  through  these  chinks  into 
a  strange  old  scene,  the  stuff  of  it  fallen  obsolete,  the  spirit 
of  it  not,  nor  worthy  to  fall. 

These  were  Sophie  Charlotte's  reunions ;  very  charming  in 
their  time.  At  which  how  joyful  for  Irish  Toland  to  be  pres- 
ent, as  was  several  times  his  luck.  Toland,  a  mere  broken 
heretic  in  his  own  country,  who  went  thither  once  as  Secretary 
to  some  Embassy  (Embassy  of  Macclesfield's,  1701,  announcing 
that  the  English  Crown  had  fallen  Hanover-wards),  and  was 
no  doubt  glad,  poor  headlong  soul,  to  find  himself  a  gentle- 
man and  Christian  again,  for  the  time  being,  —  admires  Hano- 
ver and  Berlin  very  much ;  and  looks  upon  Sophie  Charlotte 
in  particular  as  the  pink  of  women.  Something  between  an 
earthly  Queen  and  a  divine  Egeria ;  "  Serena "  he  calls  her ; 
and,  in  his  high-flown  fashion,  is  very  laudatory.  "  The  most 
beautiful  Princess  of  her  time,"  says  he,  —  meaning  one  of  the 
most  beautiful :  her  features  are  extremely  regular,  and  full  of 
vivacity ;  copious  dark  hair,  blue  eyes,  complexion  excellently 
fair  ;  —  "  not  very  tall,  and  somewhat  too  plump,"  he  admits 
elsewhere.  And  then  her  mind,  —  for  gifts,  for  graces,  culture, 
where  will  you  find  such  a  mind  ?  "  Her  reading  is  infinite, 
and  she  is  conversant  in  all  manner  of  subjects;"  "knows  the 
abstrusest  problems  of  Philosophy  ; "  says  admiring  Toland : 
much  knowledge  everywhere  exact,  and  handled  as  by  an 
artist  and  queen ;  for  "  her  wit  is  inimitable,"  "  her  justness  of 
tliought,  her  delicacy  of  expression,"  her  felicity  of  utterance 
and  management,  are  great.  Foreign  courtiers  call  her  'Hhe 
Republican  Queen."  She  detects  you  a  sophistry  at  one  glance ; 
pierces  down  direct  upon  the  weak  point  of  an  opinion :  never 
in  my  whole  life  did  I,  Toland,  come  upon  a  swifter  or  sharper 
intellect.  And  then  she  is  so  good  withal,  so  bright  and  cheer- 
ful ;  and  "  has  the  art  of  uniting  what  to  the  rest  of  the  world 
are  antagonisms,  mirth  and  learning,"  —  say  even,  mirth  and 

entirely  forgotten  in  our  time  {A  Letter  or/ainst  Popery  hij  Sophia  Cfiar/ottr,  the 
late  Queen  of  P7-us>iin  :  Beincj,  &c.  &c.  London,  1712).  But  the  finest  Duel  of 
all  was  probably  that  between  Beausobre  and  Toland  himself  (reported  by 
Beausobre,  in  something  of  a  crowing  manner,  in  Ermav,  pp.  203-241,  "  Octo- 
ber, 1701  "),  of  which  Tolar.d  makes  no  mention  anywhere 


Chap.  IV.  FATHER'S    MOTHER.  43 

good  sense.  Is  deep  in  music,  too  ;  plays  daily  on  her  harpsi- 
chord, and  fantasies,  and  even  composes,  in  an  eminent  man- 
ner.^ Toland's  admiration,  deducting  the  high-flown  temper 
and  manner  of  the  man,  is  sincere  and  great. 

■Beyond  doubt  a  bright  airy  lady,  shining  in  mild  radiance  in 
those  Northern  parts  ;  very  graceful,  very  witty  and  ingenious ; 
skilled  to  speak,  skilled  to  hold  her  tongue,  —  which  latter 
art  also  was  frequently  in  requisition  with  her.  She  did  not 
much  venerate  her  Husband,  nor  the  Court  population,  male 
or  female,  whom  he  chose  to  have  about  him :  his  and  their 
ways  were  by  no  means  hers,  if  she  had  cared  to  publish  her 
thoughts.  Friedrich  I.,  it  is  admitted  on  all  hands,  was  ''  an 
expensive  Herr ; "  much  given  to  magnificent  ceremonies, 
etiquettes  and  solemnities  ;  making  no  great  way  any-whither, 
and  that  always  with  noise  enough,  and  with  a  dust  vortex 
of  courtier  intrigues  and  cabals  encircling  him,  —  from  which 
it  is  b-^tter  to  stand  quite  to  windward.  Moreover,  he  was 
slightly  crooked;  most  sensitive,  thin  of  skin  and  liable  to 
sudden  flaws  of  temper,  though  at  heart  very  kind  and  good. 
Sophie  Charlotte  is  she  who  wrote  once,  "  Leibnitz  talked  to 
me  .of  the  infinitely  little  (de  l^infiniment  petit)  :  nion  Dleu, 
as  if  I  did  not  know  enough  of  that ! "  Besides,  it  is  whis- 
pered she  was  once  near  marrying  to  Louis  XIV.'s  Dauphin ; 
her  Mother  Sophie,  and  her  Cousin  the  Dowager  Duchess  of 
Orleans,  cunning  women  both,  had  brought  her  to  Paris  in  her 
girlhood,  with  that  secret  object ;  and  had  very  nearly  managed 
it.  Queen  of  France  that  might  have  been ;  and  now  it  is  but 
Brandenburg,  and  the  dice  have  fallen  somewhat  wrong  for  us  ! 
She  had  Friedrich  Wilhelm,  the  rough  boy ;  and  perhaps  noth- 
ing more  of  very  precious  property.  Her  first  child,  likewise 
a  boy,  had  soon  died,  and  there  came  no  third :  tedious  cere- 
monials, and  the  infinitely  little,  were  mainly  her  lot  in  this 
world. 

1  An  Account  of  the  Courts  of  Prussia  and  Hanover,  sent  to  a  Minister  of  State  in 
Holland,  by  Mr.  Tolaud  (London,  1705),  p.  322.  Toland's  other  Book,  -which 
has  reference  to  her,  is  of  didactic  natnre  ("  immortality  of  the  soul,"  "origin 
of  idolatry,"  &c.),  but  with  much  fine  panegyric  direct  and  oblique:  Letters  to 
Sei-ena  ("  Serena'   being  Quern),  a  thin  8vo,  London,  1704. 


44  BIRTH  AND  PARENTAGE.  Book  I. 

All  which,  however,  she  had  the  art  to  take  up  not  in  the 
tragic  way,  but  in  the  mildly  comic,  —  often  not  to  take  up  at 
all,  but  leave  lying  there  ;  —  and  thus  to  manage  in  a  handsome 
and  softly  victorious  manner.  With  delicate  female  tact,  with 
fine  female  stoicism  too ;  keeping  all  things  within  limits.  She 
was  much  respected  by  her  Husband,  much  loved  indeed ;  and 
greatly  mourned  for  by  the  poor  man :  the  village  Lutzelburg 
(Little-town),  close  by  Berlin,  where  she  had  built  a  mansion 
for  herself,  he  fondly  named  Charhttenburg  (Charlotte's-town), 
after  her  death,  which  name  both  House  and  Village  still  bear. 
Leibnitz  found  her  of  an  almost  troublesome  sharpness  of  intel- 
lect; "wants  to  know  the  why  even  of  the  why,"  says  Leibnitz. 
That  is  the  way  of  female  intellects  when  they  are  good ;  noth- 
ing equals  their  acuteness,  and  their  rapidity  is  almost  exces- 
sive. Samuel  Johnson,  too,  had  a  young-hitly  friend  once 
"with  the  acutest  intellect  I  have  ever  known." 

On  the  whole,  we  may  pronounce  her  clearly  a  superior 
woman,  this  Sophie  Charlotte  ;  notable  not  for  her  Grandson 
alone,  though  now  pretty  much  forgotten  by  the  world,  —  as 
indeed  all  things  and  persons  have,  one  day  or  other,  to  be ! 
A  Life  of  her,  in  feeble  watery  style,  and  distracted  arrange- 
ment, by  one  Ennan,^  a  Berlin  Frenchman,  is  in  existence, 
and  will  repay  a  cursory  perusal ;  curious  traits  of  her,  in  still 
looser  form,  are  also  to  be  found  in  Polbiitz :^  but  for  our  pur- 
poses here  is  enough,  and  more  than  enough. 

1  Monsieur  Errnan,  Historiographe  de  Brandebourg,  M€moires  pour  scrvir  a 
I'llistoire  de  Sophie  Charlotte,  Heine  de  Preusse,  lus  dans  les  Stances,  ^-c,  (1  vol. 
8vo,  Berlin,  1801.) 

2  Carl  Ludwig  Frciherr  von  Pollnitz,  Mrmonen  zur  Lebens-  und  Rffjiertings- 
Geschichte  der  vier  letzten  Regenten  des  Preussischen  Slaats  (was  published  in 
French  also),  2  vola.  12mo,  Berlin,  1791. 


CuAP.  V.       ,''  KING   FRIEDRICH  I.  45 


CHAPTER  V. 


KING    FRIEDRICH   I. 


The  Prussian  royalty  is  now  in  its  twelfth  year  when  this 
little  Friedrich,  who  is  to  carry  it  to  such  a  height,  comes  into 
the  world.  Old  Friedrich  the  Grandfather  achieved  this  dig- 
nity, after  long  and  intricate  negotiations,  in  the  first  year  of 
the  Century ;  16th  November,  1700,  his  ambassador  returned 
triumphant  from  Vienna ;  the  Kaiser  had  at  last  consented : 
We  are  to  wear  a  crown  royal  on  the  top  of  our  periwig ;  the 
old  Electorate  of  Brandenburg  is  to  become  the  Kingdom  of 
Prussia;  and  the  Family  of  Hohenzollern,  slowly  mounting 
these  many  centuries,  has  reached  the  uppermost  round  of 
the  ladder. 

Friedrich,  the  old  Gentleman  who  now  looks  upon  his  little 
Grandson  (destined  to  be  Third  King  of  Prussia)  with  such 
interest,  —  is  not  a  very  memorable  man;  but  he  has  had  his 
adventures  too,  his  losses  and  his  gains  :  and  surely  among 
the  latter,  the  gain  of  a  crown  royal  into  his  House  gives  him, 
if  only  as  a  chronological  milestone,  some  place  in  History. 
He  was  son  of  him  they  call  the  Great  Elector,  Friedrich 
Wilhelm  by  name ;  of  whom  the  Prussians  speak  much,  in 
an  eagerly  celebrating  manner,  and  whose  strenuous  toilsome 
work  in  this  world,  celebrated  or  not,  is  still  deeply  legible 
in  the  actual  life  and  alfairs  of  Germany.  A  man  of  whom 
we  must  yet  find  some  opportunity  to  say  a  word.  From  him 
and  a  beautiful  and  excellent  Princess  Luise,  Princess  of 
Orange,  —  Dutch  "William,  our  Dutch  William's  aunt,  —  this 
crooked  ro3'al  Friedrich  came. 

He  was  not  born  crooked ;  straight  enough  once,  and  a  fine 
little  boy  of  six  months  old  or  so ;  there  being  an  elder  Prince 
now  in  his  third  year,  also  full  of  hope.     But  in  a  rough  jour- 


46  BIRTH  AND  PARENTAGE.  Book  I. 

ney  to  Konigsberg  aud  back  (winter  of  1657,  as  is  gviessed), 
one  of  the  many  rough  jolting  journeys  this  faithful  Electress 
made  with  her  Husband,  a  careless  or  unlucky  nurse,  Avho  had 
charge  of  pretty  little  Fritzchen,  was  not  sufficiently  attentive 
to  her  duties  on  the  worst  of  roads.  The  ever-jolting  carriage 
gave  some  bigger  jolt,  the  child  fell  backwards  in  her  arms  ;  ^  — 
did  not  quite  break  his  back,  but  injured  it  for  life  :-»- and 
with  his  back,  one  may  perceive,  injured  his  soul  and  history 
to  an  almost  corresponding  degree.  For  the  weak  crooked 
lK)y,  with  keen  and  fine  perceptions,  and  an  inadequate  case 
to  put  them  in,  grew  up  with  too  thin  a  skin:  —  that  may  be 
considered  as  the  summary  of  his  misfortunes ;  and,  on  the 
whole,  there  is  no  other  heavy  sin  to  l)e  charged  against  him. 

He  had  other  loads  laid  u}»on  him,  poor  youth :  his  kind 
pious  Mother  died,  his  elder  Bi-other  died,  he  ,at  the  age  of 
seventeen  saw  himself  Heir-Apparent;  —  and  had  got  a  Step- 
mother with  new  heirs,  if  he  should  disappear.  Sorrows 
enough  in  that  one  fact,  with  the  venomous  whisperings, 
commentaries  and  suspicions,  which  a  Court  population,  fe- 
male and  male,  in  little  Berlin  Town,  can  contrive  to  tack 
to  it.  Does  not  the  new  Sovereign  Lady,  in  her  heart,  wish 
you  were  dead,  my  Prince  ?  Hope  it  perhaps  ?  Health,  at 
any  rate,  weak;  and,  by  the  aid  of  a  little  pharmacy  —  ye 
Heavens  ! 

Such  suspicions  are  now  understood  to  have  had  no  basis 
except  in  the  waste  brains  of  courtier  men  and  women ;  but 
their  existence  there  can  become  tragical  enough.  Add  to 
which,  the  Great  Elector,  like  all  the  Hohenzollerns,  was  a 
choleric  man ;  capable  of  blazing  into  volcanic  explosions, 
Avhen  affronted  by  idle  masses  of  cobwebs  in  the  midst  of 
his  serious  businesses !  It  is  certain,  the  young  Prince  Fried- 
rich  had  at  one  time  got  into  quite  high,  shrill  and  mutually 
minatory  terms  with  his  Stepmother ;  so  that  once,  after  some 
such  shrill  dialogue  between  them,  ending  with  "  You  shall 
repent  this.  Sir ! "  —  he  found  it  good  to  fly  off  in  the  night, 
with  only  his  Tutor  or  Secretary  and  a  valet,  to  Hessen-Cassel 

^  Johann  Wegfiihrer,  L<ben  der  Kiirfdrstin  Lnise,  gebornen  Prinzcssin  von 
Nassau-Oranien,  GemaJilin  Friedrich  WUhelin  des  Grossen  (Leipzig,  1838),  p.  107. 


CiiAP.  V.  *  KING  FRIEDEICH  I.  47 

to  an  Aunt ;  who  stoutly  protected  him  in  this  emergency ;  and 
whose  Daughter,  after  the  difficult  readjustment  of  matters, 
became  his  AVife,  but  did  not  live  long.  And  it  is  farther 
certain  the  same  Prince,  during  this  his  first  wedded  time, 
dining  one  day  with  his  Stepmother,  was  taken  suddenly  ill. 
Felt  ill,  after  his  cup  of  coffee ;  retired  into  another  room  in 
violent  spasms,  evidently  in  an  alarming  state,  and  secretly 
in  a  most  alarmed  one :  his  Tutor  or  Secretary,  one  Dankel- 
mann,  attended  him  thither;  and  as  the  Doctor  took  some 
time  ^  to  arrive,  and  the  symptoms  were  instant  and  lu-gent, 
Secretary  Dankelmann  produced  "  from  a  pocket-book  some 
drug  of  his  own,  or  of  the  liessen-Cassel  Aunt,"  emetic  I 
suppose,  and  gave  it  to  the  poor  Prince;  —  who  said  often, 
and  felt  '^^3t  after,  with  or  without  notion  of  poison,  That 
Dankelmann  had  saved  his  life.  In  consequence  of  which 
adventure  he  again  quitted  Court  without  leave ;  and  begged 
to  be  permitted  to  remain  safe  in  the  country,  if  Papa  would 
be  so  good.^ 

jfancy  the  Great  Elector's  humor  on  such  an  occurrence; 
and  what  a  furtherance  to  him  in  his  heavy  continual  labors, 
and  strenuous  swimming  for  life,  these  beautiful  humors  and 
transactions  must  have  been  !  A  crook-backed  boy,  dear  to  the 
Great  Elector,  pukes,  one  afternoon ;  and  there  arises  such  an 
opening  of  the  Nether  Floodgates  of  this  Universe ;  in  and 
round  your  poor  workshop,  nothing  but  sudden  darkness, 
smell  of  sulphur ;  hissing  of  forked  serpents  here,  and  the 
universal  alleleu  of  female  hysterics  there ;  —  to  help  a  man 
forward  with  his  work !  0  reader,  we  will  pity  the  crowned 
head,  as  well  as  the  hatted  and  even  hatless  one.  Human 
creatures  will  not  f/o  quite  accurately  together,  any  more  than 
clocks  will ;  and  when  their  dissonance  once  rises  fairly  high, 
and  they  cannot  readily  kill  one  another,  any  Great  Elector 
who  is  third  party  will  have  a  terrible  time  of  it. 

Electress  Dorothee,  the  Stepmother,  was  herseK  somewhat 
of  a  hard  lady;  not  easy  to  live  with,  though  so  far  above 
poisoning  as  to  have  "  despised  even  the  suspicion  of  it." 
She  was  much  given  to  practical  economics,  dairy-farming, 

1  Pollnitz,  Memoiren,  i.  191-198. 


48  BIRTH  AND  PARENTAGE.  Book  I. 

market-gardening,  and  industrial  and  commercial  operations 
such  as  ottered ;  and  was  thought  to  be  a  very  strict  reckoner 
of  money.  She  founded  the  Uorotlweiistadt,  now  oftener  called 
the  Nettstadt,  chief  quarter  of  Berlin ;  and  planted,  just  about 
the  time  of  tlds  unlucky  dinner,  "  a.d.  1080  or  so,"  ^  the  first 
of  the  celebrated  Lindens,  which  (or  the  successors  of  which, 
in  a  stunted  oondition)  are  still  growing  there.  Unter-den- 
Linden :  it  is  now  the  gayest  quarter  of  Berlin,  full  of  really 
fine  edifices :  it  was  then  a  sandy  outskirt  of  Electress  Doro- 
thee's  dairy-farm ;  good  for  nothing  but  building  upon,  thought 
Electress  Dorothee.  She  did  much  dairy-and-vegetable  trade 
on  tlie  great  scale ;  —  was  thought  even  to  have,  underhand,  a 
commercial  interest  in  the  principal  Beer-house  of  the  city? '' 
Peo])le  did  not  love  her  :  to  the  Great  Elector,  who  guided 
with  a  steady  bridle-hand,  she  complied  not  amiss ;  though  in 
him  too  there  rose  sad  recollections  and  comparisons  now  and 
then :  but  with  a  Stepson  of  unsteady  nerves  it  became  evident 
to  liim  there  could  never  be  soft  neighborhood.  Prince  Fried- 
rich  and  his  Father  came  gradually  to  some  understanding, 
tacit  or  express,  on  that  sad  matter;  Prince  Friedrich  was 
allowed  to  live,  on  his  separate  allowance,  mainly  remote  from 
Court.  Which  he  did,  for  perhaps  six  or  eight  years,  till  the 
Great  Elector's  death ;  henceforth  in  a  peaceful  manner,  or  at 
least  without  open  explosions. 

His  young  Hessen-Cassel  Wife  died  suddenly  in  168.3 ;  and 
again  there  was  mad  rumor  of  poisoning  ;  which  Electress 
Dorothee  disregarded  as  below  her,  and  of  no  consequence  to 
her,  and  attended  to  industrial  operations  that  would  pay. 
That  poor  young  Wife,  when  dying,  exacted  a  promise  from 
Prince  Friedrich  that  he  would  not  wed  again,  but  be  content 
with  the  Daughter  she  had  left  him  :  which  promise,  if  ever 
seriously  given,  could  not  be  kept,  as  we  have  seen.  Prince 
Friedrich  brought  his  Sophie  Charlotte  home  about  fifteen 
months  after.     With  the  Stepmother  and  with  the  Court  there 

1  Nicolai,  Beschreibung  der  liiniglichen  Residenzstadte  Berlin  und  Potsdam 
(Berliu,  1786),  i.  172. 

2  Horn,  Leben  Friedrich  Wilhelms  des  Grossen  Kurfiirsten  von  Brandenburg 
(Berlin,  1814). 


Chap.  V.         .  KING   FRIEDRICII   I.  49 

was  armed  neutrality  under  tolerable  forms,  and  no  open 
explosion  farther. 

In  a  secret  way,  however,  there  continued  to  be  difficulties. 
And  such  difficulties  had  already  been,  that  the  poor  yo\ing 
man,  not  yet  come  to  his  Heritages,  and  having,  with  probably 
some  turn  for  exi)ense,  a  covetous  unamiable  Stepmother,  had 
fallen  into  the  usual  difficulties ;  and  taken  the  methods  too 
usual.  Namely,  had  given  ear  to  the  Austrian  Court,  which 
offered  him  assistance,  —  somewhat  as  an  aged  Jew  will  to  a 
young  Christian  gentleman  in  quarrel  with  papa,  —  upon  con- 
dition of  his  signing  a  certain  bond :  bond  which  much  sur- 
prised Prince  Friedrich  when  he  came  to  understand  it !  Of 
Avhich  we  shall  hear  more,  and  even  much  more,  in  the  course 
of  time  !  — 

Neither  after  liis  accession  (year  1688  ;  his  Cousin  Dutch 
William,  of  the  glorious  and  immortal  memory,  just  lifting 
anchor  towards  these  shores)  was  the  new  Elector's  life  an 
easy  one.  We  may  say,  it  was  replete  with  troubles  rather ; 
and  unliappily  not  so  much  with  great  troubles,  which  could 
call  forth  antagonistic  greatness  of  mind  or  of  result,  as  with 
never-ending  shoals  of  small  troubles,  the  antagonism  to  which 
is  apt  to  become  itself  of  smallish  character.  Do  not  search 
into  his  liistory  ;  you  will  remember  almost  nothing  of  it 
(I  hope)  after  never  so  many  readings  !  Garrulous  Pollnitz 
and  others  have  written  enough  about  him  ;  but  it  all  runs  off 
from  you  again,  as  a  thing  that  has  no  affinity  with  the  human 
skin.  He  had  a  court  "  rempli  d'intrigues,  full  of  never-ending 
cabals,"  ^  —  about  what  ? 

One  question  only  are  we  a  little  interested  in :  How  he 
came  by  the  Kingship  ?  How  did  the  like  of  him  contrive 
to  achieve  Kingship  ?  We  may  answer  :  It  was  not  he  that 
achieved  it ;  it  was  those  that  went  before  him,  who  had  grad- 
ually got  it,  —  as  is  very  usual  in  such  cases.  All  that  he  did 
was  to  knock  at  the  gate  (the  Kaiser's  gate  and  the  world's), 
and  ask,  "  Is  it  achieved,  then  ?  "  Is  Brandenburg  grown  ripe 
for  having  a  crown  ?     Will  it  be  needful  for  you  to  grant 

^  Forstcr,  i.  74  (quoting  Me'moircs  riti  Conite  de  Dohnu) ;  &c.  &c. 
vol..  V.  4 


60  BIRTH   AND   PARENTAGE.  ijwk  I. 

IJrandenlmrg  a  crown  ?  "Wliieh  question,  alter  knocking  as 
loud  as  possible,  tlicy  at  last  took  the  trouble  to  answer,  "  Yes, 
it  ■will  be  needful."'  — 

Elector  Friedrich's  turn  for  ostentation  —  or  as  we  may 
interpret  it,  the  high  spirit  of  a  I  luhenzolleru  working  through 
weak  nerves  and  a  crooked  back  —  had  early  set  hiiu  a-think- 
ing  of  the  Kingship;  and  no  doubt,  the  exaltation  of  rival 
Saxony,  which  hatl  attaiui'd  that  envied  dignity  (in  a  very  un- 
enviable manner,  in  the  person  of  Elector  August  made  King 
of  I'oland)  in  1(>07,  operated  as  a  new  spur  on  his  activities. 
Then  also  Duke  Ernst  of  Hanover,  his  father-in-law,  was 
struggling  to  become  Elector  Ernst ;  Hanover  to  be  the  Ninth 
Electorate,  which  it  actually  attained  in  1698 ;  not  to  speak 
of  England,  and  quite  endless  jirospects  there  for  Ernst  and 
Hanover.  These  my  lucky  neighbors  are  all  rising;  all  this 
the  Kaiser  has  gi-anted  to  my  lucky  neighbors:  why  is  there 
no  promotion  he  should  grant  me,  among  them  !  — 

Elector  Friediich  had  30,000  excellent  troops  ;  Kaiser  Leo- 
pold, the  "  little  man  in  red  stockings,"  had  no  end  of  Wars. 
Wars  in  Turkey,  wars  in  Italy;  all  Dutch  William's  wars  and 
more,  on  our  side  of  Europe ;  —  and  here  is  a  Sjianish-Suc- 
cession  Wai*,  coming  dubiously  on,  which  may  prove  greater 
than  all  the  rest  together.  Elector  Friedrich  sometimes  in  his 
own  high  jwrson  (a  courageous  and  liigh  though  thin-skinned 
man),  otherwise  by  skilful  deputy,  had  done  the  Kaiser  ser- 
vice, often  signal  service,  in  all  these  Wars ;  and  was  never 
wanting  in  the  time  of  need,  in  the  post  of  ditiiculty  with 
those  famed  Prussian  Troops  of  his.  A  loyal  gallant  Elector 
this,  it  must  be  owned ;  capable  withal  of  doing  signal  damage 
if  we  irritated  him  too  far  !  Why  not  give  him  this  pro- 
motion, since  it  costs  tis  absolutely  nothing  real,  not  even  the 
price  of  a  yard  of  ribbon  with  metal  cross  at  the  end  of  it  ? 
Kaiser  Leopold  himself,  it  is  said,  had  no  particular  objection ; 
but  certain  of  his  ministers  had ;  and  the  little  man  in  red 
stockings  —  much  occupied  in  hunting,  for  one  thing  —  let 
them  have  their  way,  at  the  risk  of  angering  Elector  Fried- 
rich.  Even  Dutch  William,  anxious  for  it,  in  sight  of  the 
future,  had  not  yet  prevailed. 


Chap.  V.       T  KING  FEIEDRICH  I.  61 

The  negotiation  had  lasted  some  seven  years,  without  result. 
There  is  no  doubt  but  the  Successiou  War,  and  Marlborough, 
would  have  brought  it  to  a  happy  issue  :  in  the  mean  while,  it 
is  said  to  have  succeeded  at  last,  somewhat  on  the  sudden,  by 
a  kind  of  accident.  This  is  the  curious  mythical  account ;  in- 
correct in  some  unessential  particulars,  but  in  the  main  and 
singular  part  of  it  well-founded.  Elector  Friedrich,  according 
to  Pcilluitz  and  others,  after  failing  in  many  methods,  had  sent 
100,000  thalers  (say  £15,000)  to  give,  byway  of  —  bribe  we 
must  call  it,  — to  tlie  chief  opposing  Hofrath  at  Vienna.  The 
money  was  offered,  accordingly  ;  and  was  refused  by  the  op- 
posing Hofrath  :  upon  which  the  Brandenburg  Ambassador 
wrote  that  it  was  all  labor  lost ;  and  even  hurried  off  home- 
wards in  despair,  leaving  a  Secretary  in  his  place.  The  Bran- 
denburg Court,  nothing  despairing,  orders  in  the  mean  while. 
Try  another  with  it,  —  some  other  Hofrath,  whose  name  they 
wrote  in  cipher,  which  the  blundering  Secretaiy  took  to  mean 
no  Hofrath,  but  the  Kaiser's  Confessor  and  Chief  Jesuit, 
I'ater  Wolf.  To  him  accordingly  he  hastened  with  the  cash, 
to  him  with  the  respectful  Electoral  request ;  who  received 
both,  it  is  said,  especially  the  £15,000,  with  a  GloHa  in  excelsis  ; 
and  went  forthwith  and  persuaded  the  Kaiser.^  —  Now  here  is 
the  inexactitude,  say  Modern  Doctors  of  History  ;  an  error  no 
less  than  threefold.  1°.  Elector  Friedrich  was  indeed  advised, 
in  cipher,  by  his  agent  at  Vienna,  to  write  in  person  to  — 
**  Who  is  that  cipher,  then  ?  "  asks  Elector  Friedrich,  rather 
puzzled.  At  Vienna  that  cipher  was  meant  for  the  Kaiser ; 
but  at  Berlia  they  take  it  for  Pater  Wolf  ;  and  write  ac- 
cordingly, and  are  answered  with  readiness  and  animation. 
2°.  Pater  Wolf  was  not  official  Confessor,  but  was  a  Jesuit 
in  extreme  favor  with  the  Kaiser,  and  by  birth  a  noble- 
man, sensible  to  human  decorations.  3°.  He  accepted  no 
bribe,  nor  was  any  sent ;  liis  bribe  was  the  pleasure  of  oblig- 
ing a  high  gentleman  who  condescended  to  ask,  and  possi- 
bly the  hope  of  smoothing  roads  for  St.  Ignatius  and  the 
Black  ISIilitia,  in  time  coming.  And  thus  at  last,  and  not 
otherwise  than  thus,  say  exact  Doctors,  did  Pater  Wolf  do 
1  Pollnitz,  Memoiren,  i.  310. 


52  BIRTH  AND   PARENTAGE.  Book  I. 

the  tiling.^  Or  might  not  the  actual  death  of  poor  King  Car- 
los II.  at  ^Madrid,  1st  November,  1700,  lor  whose  heritages  all 
the  world  stood  watcliing  with  swords  half  drawn,  consideror 
Lly  assist  Pater  "Wolf  ?  Done  sure  enough  the  thing  was  ; 
and  before  November  ended,  Friedrieh's  messenger  returned 
with  "  Yes  "  for  answer,  and  a  Treaty  signed  on  the  IGth  of 
that  month." 

To  the  luige  joy  of  Elector  Friedrieh  and  his  Court,  almost 
the  very  nation  thinking  itself  glad.  Which  joj'ful  Potentate 
decided  to  set  out  straightway  and  have  the  coronation  done; 
tliougli  it  wa.s  midwinter  ;  and  Kcinigsberg  (for  I'russia  is  to  be 
our  title,  '•  King  in  Prussia,"  and  Konigsberg  is  Capital  City 
there)  lies  450  miles  olT,  through  tangled  shaggy  forests,  boggy 
wildernesses,  anil  in  many  j)arts  only  corduroy  roads.  We 
order  "  30,000  post-horses,"  besides  all  our  own  large  stud,  to  be 
got  ready  at  the  various  stations  :  our  lx)y  Friedrieh  Wilhelm, 
rugged  boy  of  twelve,  rough  and  brisk,  yet  much  "  given  to 
blush  '*  withal  (which  is  a  feature  of  him),  shall  go  with  us ; 
much  more,  Sophie  Charlotte  our  august  Electress-Queen  that 
is  to  Ix? :  and  we  set  out,  on  the  17th  of  December,  1700,  last 
year  of  the  Century ;  "  in  1H()0  carriages:  "  such  a  cavalcatle  as 
never  crossed  those  wintry  wildernesses  before.  Friedrieh 
Wilhelm  went  in  the  third  division  of  carriages  (for  18(K)  of 
them  could  not  go  quite  together) ;  our  noble  Sophie  Charlotte 
in  the  second ;  a  Margraf  of  Prandenburg-Schwedt,  chief  Mar- 
graf,  our  eldest  Ilalf-Brother,  Dorothee's  eldest  Son,  sitting  on 
the  coach-box,  in  correct  insignia,  as  similitude  of  Driver.  So 
strict  are  we  in  etiquette ;  etiquette  indeed  being  now  upon  its 
apotheosis,  and  after  such  efforts.  Six  or  seven  years  of  efforts 
on  Elector  Friedrieh's  part ;  and  six  or  seven  hundred  years, 
unconsciously,  on  that  of  his  ancestors. 

The  magnificence  of  Friedrieh's  processionings  into  Konigs- 
berg, and  through  it  or  in  it,  to  be  crowned,  and  of  his  coronation 
ceremonials  there  :  what  pen  can  describe  it,  what  pen  need  ! 
Folio  volumes  with  copjier-plates  have  been  written  on  it ;  and 

'  G.  A.  II.  Stcnzcl.  GfsrhirhU'  des  Prensslschrn  Stoats  (Hamburg,  1841), 
iii.  104.     Niciilai  (Berlinrr  yfonatschrif).  year  1799);  &c. 

"  Pollnitz  (i.  318)  gives  the  Treaty  (date  corrected  by  his  Editor,  ii.  589) 


Chap.  V.         *  KING    FRIEDRICII    I.  53 

are  not  yet  all  pasted  in  bandboxes,  or  slit  into  spills.*  "  The 
diamond  buttons  of  his  Majesty's  coat  [snulf-colored  or  purple, 
I  cannot  recollect]  cost  A,' 1,500  apiece;"  by  this  one  feature 
judge  what  an  expensive  Herr.  Streets  were  hung  with  cloth, 
carpeted  with  cloth,  no  end  of  draperies  and  cloth ;  your  op- 
pressed imagination  feels  as  if  there  was  cloth  enough,  of 
scarlet  and  other  bright  colors,  to  thatch  the  Arctic  Zone. 
With  illuminations,  cannon-salvos,  fountains  running  wine. 
Friedrich  had  made  two  Bishops  for  the  nonce.  Two  of  his 
natural  Church-Superintendents  made  into  Quasi-Bishops,  on 
the'Anglican  model, —  which  was  always  a  favorite  with  him, 
and  a  pious  wish  of  his ;  —  but  they  remained  mere  cut 
branches,  these  two,  and  did  not,  after  their  haranguing  and 
anointing  functions,  take  root  in  the  country,  lie  himself 
put  the  crown  on  his  heatl:  ''King here  in  my  own  right,  after 
all  I ''  —  and  looked  his  royalest,  we  may  fancy;  the  kind  eyes 
of  him  almost  partly  tierce  for  moments,  and  "  the  cheerfulness 
of  pride  "  well  blending  with  something  of  awful. 

In  all  which  sublimities,  the  one  thing  that  remains  for 
human  memory  is  not  in  these  Folios  at  all,  but  is  considered 
to  be  a  fact  not  the  less :  Electress  Charlotte's,  now  Queen 
Charlotte's,  very  strange  conduct  on  the  occasion.  For  she 
cared  not  much  about  crowns,  or  upholstery  magnificences  of 
any  kind ;  but  had  meditated  from  of  old  on  the  infinitely 
little ;  and  under  these  genuflections,  risings,  sittings,  shift- 
ings,  grimacings  on  all  parts,  and  the  endless  droning  eloquence 
of  Bishops  invoking  Heaven,  her  ennui,  not  ill-humored  or 
offensively  ostensible,  was  heartfelt  and  transcendent.  At  one 
turn  of  the  proceedings,  Bishop  This  and  Chancellor  That 
droning  their  empty  grandiloquences  at  discretion,  Sophie 
Chai'lotte  was  distincth*  seen  to  smuggle  out  her  snuff-box, 
being  addicted  to  that  rakish  practice,  and  fairly  solace  herself 
with  a  delicate  little  pinch  of  snuff.  Rasped  tobacco,  tabac 
rape,  called  by  mortals  raj^e  or  rappee  :  there  is  no  doubt  about 
it ;  and  the  new  King  himself  noticed  her,  and  hurled  back  a 

^  British  Museam,  short  of  very  many  necessary  Books  on  this  subject, 
offrrs  the  due  Coronatiou  Folio,  with  its  prints,  upholstery  catalogues,  and 
official  harangues  upon  nothing,  to  ingenuous  human  curiosity. 


54  BIRTH  AND  PARENTAGE.  b,k.k  I. 

look  of  due  fulminancy,  which  could  uot  help  the  matter,  and 
was  only  lost  in  air.  A  memorable  little  action,  and  almost 
.symlKjlic  in  the  first  TrussiiUi  Coronation.  "  Yes,  we  are 
Kings,  and  are  got  no  near  the  stiirs,  not  nearer;  and  you 
invoke  the  g<xls,  in  that  tremendously  long-winded  manner ; 
and  I  —  Heavens,  1  have  my  snuff-box  by  me,  at  least  I "'  Thou 
wearieil  ]iatient  Heroine  ;  cognizant  of  the  intinitely  little  I  — 
This  symbolic  pinch  of  snuff  is  fragrant  all  along  in  Prussian 
Jlistory.  A  fragrancy  of  humble  verity  in  the  middle  of  all 
royal  or  othel^ostentations ;  inexorable,  (juiet  protest  against 
cant,  done  with  such  simi)licity  :  Sophie  Charlotte's  svmbolic 
pinch  of  snuff.  She  was  always  considered  something  of  a 
Kei)ublicau  Queen. 

Thus  lirandenburg  Electorate  has  become.  Kingdom  of 
Prussia;  and  the  IlohenzoUerns  have  jtut  a  crown  upou  their 
heail.  Of  JJrandenburg,  what  it  was,  and  what  Prussii^  Wiis; 
and  of  the  Hohenzullerns  and  what  they  were,  and  hov  they 
rose  thither,  a  few  details,  to  such  as  are  dark  about  these 
matters,  cannot  well  be  disiHJUsed  with  here. 


BOOK    TT. 

OF  BRANDENBURG  AND  THE  IIOIIENZOLLERNS. 

928-1417. 

(•|iAi'ii:i:   I. 

nKANMIMiK:    in.MCY    TIIK    KoWLKR. 

TiiK  IJniiKleiiltur^'  Countries,  till  thoy  Ijccome  related  to  the 
Huheiizulk'ni  Family  which  now  rules  there,  have  no  History 
that  has  proved  nieujoruble  to  mankind.  There  lias  indeed 
bethi  a  good  deal  written  under  that  title  ;  but  there  is  by  no 
means  nuuh  known,  and  of  that  again  there  is  alarmingly  little 
that  is  worth  knowing  or  remembering. 

l*3'theas,  the  Marseilles  Travelling  Commissioner,  looking 
out  for  new  channels  of  traile,  somewhat  above  2,000  years 
ago,  saw  the  country  actually  lying  there  ;  sailed  past  it, 
occasionally  landing ;  and  made  report  to  such  Marseillese 
*'  Chamber  of  Commerce  ''  as  there  then  was  :  —  report  now 
lost,  all  to  a  few  indistinct  and  iusigniticaut  fractions.^  This 
was  "  about  the  year  327  before  Christ,"  while  Alexander 
of  ]\Iacedon  was  busy  conquering  India.  Beyond  question, 
Pytheas,  the  first  icrlting  or  civilized  creatiu-e  that  ever  saw 
Germany,  gazed  with  his  Greek  eyes,  and  occasionally  landed, 
striving  to  speak  and  inquire,  upon  those  old  Baltic  Coasts, 
north  border  of  the  now  Prussian  Kingdom ;  and  reported  of 
it  to  mankind  we  know  not  what.  Wliich  brings  home  to  us 
the  fact  that  it  existed,  but  almost  nothing  more  :  A  Country 
1  M^inoires  de  rAcad€mie  des  Inscriptions,  t.  xix.  46,  xxxvii.  439,  &c. 


66     BRANDENBURG  AND  IIOHENZOLLERNS.  Bo«k  II. 

A.u.  000. 

of  lakes  and  woods,  of  marshy  jungles,  sandy  wildernesses ; 
inhabited  by  bears,  otters,  bisons,  wolves,  wild  swine,  and  cer- 
tain shaggy  Germans  of  the  Suevic  type,  as  good  as  inarticu- 
late to  Pytlieas.  After  whicli  all  direct  notice  of  it  ceases  for 
above  three  hundred  years.  We  can  hope  only  that  tlie  jun- 
gles wert!  getting  cleared  a  little,  and  the  wild  creatures  hunted 
down  ;  that  the  Germans  were  increasing  in  number,  and  be- 
coming a  thought  less  shaggy.  These  latter,  tall  Suevi  Sem- 
nones,  men  of  blond  stern  aspect  (ocuH  triurs  ctrrulei)  and 
great  strengtli  of  lM)ne,  were  known  to  i)Ossess  a  formidable 
talent  for  lighting:'  Drusus  Germanicus,  it  has  been  guessed, 
did  not  like  to  appear  personally  among  them  :  some  "gigantic 
woman  prophesying  to  him  across  the  Elbe  "  that  it  might  be 
dangerous,  Ihusus  contented  himself  with  erecting  some  tri- 
umphal i)illar  on  his  own  safe  side  of  the  Elbe,  to  sui/  that 
they  were  conquered. 

In  the  Fourtli  Century  of  our  era,  when  the  German  jiopula- 
tions,  on  impulse  of  certain  *'  Huns  exjudled  from  the  Chinese 
frontier,"  or  for  other  reasons  valid  to  themselves,  l)egan  flow- 
ing universally  southward,  to  take  possession  of  the  rich 
Koman  world,  and  so  continued  flowing  for  two  centuries 
more ;  the  old  (ierman  frontiers  generally,  and  especially 
those  Northern  Baltic  countries,  were  left  comparatively  va~ 
C4int ;  so  that  new  immigrating  populations  from  the  East,  all 
of  Sdavic  origin,  easily  obtained  footing  and  supremacy  there. 
In  the  Northern  parts,  these  immigrating  Sdaves  were  of  the 
kind  called  Vandals,  or  Wends :  they  spread  themselves  as  far 
west  as  Hamburg  and  the  Ocean,  south  al.so  far  over  the  Elbe 
in  some  quarters ;  wliile  other  kinds  of  Sclaves  were  equally 
busy  elsewhere.  With  what  difficulty  in  settling  the  new 
boundaries,  and  what  inexliaustible  funds  of  quarrel  thereon, 
is  still  visible  to  every  one,  thougli  no  Historian  was  there  to 
say  the  least  word  of  it.  "  All  of  Sclavic  origin ;  "  but  who 
knows  of  how  many  kinds :  Wends  here  in  the  North,  through 
the  Lausitz  (Lusatia)  and  as  far  as  Thiiringen  ;  not  to  speak 
of  Polacks,  Bohemian  Czechs,  Huns,  Bulgars,  and  the  other 
dim   nomenclatures,  on  the  Eastern  frontier.     Five  hundred 

*  Tacitus,  fM  Moribus  Germnnonim,  c.  45. 


Chap.  I.  HENRY   THE   FOWLER.  57 

928. 

years  of  violent  unrecorded  fightibg,  abstruse  quarrel  -with 
tlieir  new  neighbors  in  settling  the  marches.  Many  names  of 
towns  in  Germany  ending  in  itz  (Meuselwitz,  Mollwitz),  or 
bearing  the  express  epithet  Windls<'h  (Wendish),  still  give 
indication  of  those  old  sad  circumstances ;  as  does  the  word 
Slave,  in  all  our  Western  languages,  meaning  cai)tured  Scla- 
trojiian.  What  long-tlrawn  echo  of  bitter  rage  and  hate  lies 
in  that  small  etymology ! 

These  things  were  ;  but  they  have  no  History  :  why  should 
thej;  have  any  ?  Enough  that  in  those  Baltic  regions,  there 
are  for  the  time  (Year  GOO,  and  till  long  after  Charlemagne 
is  out)  Sflaves  in  place  of  Suevi  or  of  Holstein  Saxons  and 
Angli ;  that  it  is  now  shaggy  "Wends  who  have  the  task  of 
taming  the  jungles,  and  keeping  down  the  otters  and  wolves. 
Wends  latterly  in  a  waning  condition,  much  beaten  U])on  by 
( Muirlemagne  and  others  ;  but  never  yet  beaten  out.  And  so 
it  has  to  last,  century  after  century  ;  Wends,  wolves,  wild 
swine,  all  alike  dumb  to  us.  Dumb,  or  sounding  only  one 
huge  unutterable  message  (seemingly  of  tragic  import),  like 
the  voice  of  their  old  Forests,  of  their  old  Baltic  Seas  :  —  per- 
haps more  edifying  to  us  so.  Here  at  last  is  a  definite  date 
and  event : — 

"A.D.  92S,  Henry  the  Fowler,  marching  across  the  frozen 
bogs,  took  Bkaxxibor,  a  chief  fortress  of  the  Wends;"*  — 
first  mention  in  human  speech  of  the  place  now  called  Bran- 
denburg :  Bor  or  **  Burg  of  the  Brenns  "  (if  there  ever  was 
any  Tribe  of  Brenns,  —  Brennus,  there  as  elsewhere,  being 
name  for  King  or  Leader)  ;  '*  Burg  of  the  Woods,"  say  others, 
—  who  as  little  know.  Probably,  at  that  time,  a  town  of  clay 
huts,  with  ditch  and  palisaded  sod- wall  round  it;  certainly  "a 
chief  fortress  of  the  Wends,"  —  who  must  have  been  a  good 
deal  surprised  at  sight  of  Henry  on  the  rimy  winter  morning 
near  a  thousand  years  ago. 

This  is  the  grand  old  Henry,  called  "the  Fowler  "  {HeinricJi 
der  Vogler),  because  he  was  in  his    Vogelheerde  (Falconry  or 

^  Kohler,  Reichs-ffiston'e  (Frankfurth  und  Leipzig,  1737),  p.  63.  Michaelis, 
Chur-xtnil  FUrstlidien  Hausrr  in  DnitschUtnd  (Lcmgo,  1759,  1760,  1785),  i.  255. 


58  BRANDENBURG   AND  HOHENZOLLERNS.    Book  II. 

928. 

Hawk-establishment,  seeing  liis  Hawks  fly)  in  the  upland 
Hartz  Country,  when  messengers  came  to  tell  him  that  the 
German  Nation,  through  its  Princes  and  Authorities  assem- 
bled at  Fritzlar,  had  made  him  King ;  and  that  he  would  have 
dreadful  work  henceforth.  Which  he  undertook ;  and  also 
did,  —  this  of  Brannibor  only  one  small  item  of  it,  —  warring 
right  manfully  all  his  days  against  Chaos  in  that  country,  uo 
rest  for  him  thenceforth  till  he  died.  The  beginning  of  Ger- 
man Kings ;  the  first,  or  essentially  the  first  sovereign  of 
united  Germany,  —  Charlemagne's  posterity  to  the  last  bas- 
tard having  died  out,  and  only  Anarchy,  Italian  and  other, 
being  now  the  alternative. 

"  A  very  high  King,"  says  one  whose  Note-books  I  have 
got,  "  an  authentically  noble  human  figure,  visible  still  in  dear 
outline  in  the  gray  dawn  of  Modern  History.  The  Father  of 
whatever  good  has  since  been  in  Germany.  He  subdued  his 
jyukes,  Schwaben,  Baiern  (Swabia,  Bavaria)  and  others,  who 
were  getting  too  hcrcdifnry,  and  inclined  to  disobedience.  He 
managed  to  get  bac-k  Lorraine;  made  truce  with  the  Hunga- 
rians, who  were  excessively  invasive  at  that  time.  Truce  with 
the  Hungarians  ;  and  then,  having  gathered  strength,  made 
dreadful  beating  of  them ;  two  beatings,  —  one  to  each  half, 
for  the  invasive  Savagery  had  split  itself,  for  better  chance 
of  plunder ;  first  beating  was  at  Sondershausen,  second  was  at 
Merseburg,  Year  933  ;  —  which  settled  them  considerably. 
Another  beating  from  Henry's  son,  and  they  never  came  back. 
Beat  Wends,  before  this,  —  '  Brannibor  through  frozen  bogs  ' 
five  years  ago.  Beat  Sclavic  Meisseners  (Misnians)  ;  Bohe- 
hemian  Czechs,  and  took  Prag  ;  Wends  again,  with  huge 
sLiughter ;  then  Danes,  and  made  '  King  Worm  tributary ' 
(King  Gorm  the  Hard,  our  Knufs  or  Canute's  great-grand- 
father. Year  931)  ;  —  last  of  all,  those  invasive  Hungarians 
as  above.  Had  sent  the  Hungarians,  Avhen  they  demanded 
tribute  or  black-mail  of  him  as  heretofore,  Truce  being  now 
out,  —  a  mangy  hound :  There  is  your  black-mail,  Sirs ;  make 
much  of  that ! 

"  He  had  '  the  image  of  St.  ^lichael  painted  on  his  stand- 
ard;' contrary  to  wont.     He  makes,  or  ?'e-makes,  Markgrafs 


(■hap.  I.  •  HENRY   THE   FOWLER.  59 

'j-28. 

(Wardens  of  the  Marches),  to  be  uuder  his  Dukes,  —  and  not 
too  hereditary.  Who  his  Markgraves  were  ?  Dim  History 
counts  thorn  to  the  number  of  six ;  *  which  take  in  their 
order : — 

"  1°.  Slesivig,  looking  over  into  the  Scandinavian  countries, 
and  the  Norse  Sea-kings.  This  Markgraviate  did  not  last 
long  under  that  title.  I  guess,  it  became  Stade-and-Ditmarsch 
afterwards. 

"  2°.  Soltwedel,  —  which  grows  to  be  Markgraviate  of  Bran- 
denlmrg  by  and  by.  Soltwedel,  now  called  Salzwedel,  an  old 
Town  still  extant,  sixty  miles  to  west  and  north  of  Branden- 
burg, short  way  south  of  the  Elbe,  was  as  yet  headquarters  of 
this  second  Markgraf ;  and  any  Warden  we  have  at  Branden- 
burg is  only  a  deputy  of  him  or  some  other. 

"3°.  Meissen  (which  we  call  Misnia),  a  country  at  that 
tiuu>  still  full  of  Wends. 

"4°.  Lausitz,  also  a  very  Wendish  country  (called  in  Eng- 
lish maps  Lnsatia,  —  which  is  its  name  in  Monk-Latin,  not 
now  a  spoken  language).  Did  not  long  continue  a  IMark- 
graviate  ;  fell  to  Meissen  (Saxony),  fell  to  Brandenburg,  Bohe- 
mia, Austria,  and  had  many  tos  and  fros.  Is  now  (since  the 
Thirty-Years- War  time)  mostly  Saxon  again. 

"5°.  Austria  (CEsterreich,  Eastern-Kingdom,  Easternref/  as 
we  might  say )  ;  to  look  after  the  Hungarians,  and  their 
valuable  claims  to  black-mail. 

"6°.  Antwerp  (' At-the-Wharf,'  '  On-t'-^Miarf,'  so  to  speak), 
against  the  French ;  which  function  soon  fell  obsolete. 

"  These  were  Henry's  six  Markgraviates  (as  my  best  author- 
ity enumerates  them) ;  and  in  this  way  he  had  militia  cap- 
tains ranked  all  round  his  borders,  against  the  intrusive 
Sclavic  element. 

1  Kiihler,  Eeicks-IIistorie,  p.  66.  This  is  by  no  means  Kohler's  chief 
Book ;  but  this  too  is  good,  and  does,  in  a  solid  effective  way,  what  it  at- 
tempts. He  seems  to  me  by  far  the  best  liistorical  Genius  the  Germans 
have  yet  produced,  though  I  do  not  find  much  mention  of  him  in  their 
Literary  Histories  and  Catalogues.  A  man  of  ample  learning,  and  also  of 
strong  cheerful  human  sense  and  human  honesty ;  whom  it  is  thrice-pleasant 
to  meet  with  in  those  ghastly  solitudes,  populous  chiefly  with  doleful 
creatures. 


60  BKANDENliUKG   AND   IlOlIENZOLLEKNS.    Buck  II. 

"He  fortified  Towns;  all  Towns  are  to  be  walled  and 
warded,  —  to  l)e  Jiurtjs  in  fact;  and  the  iidiahitants  Jlart/hors, 
or  men  capable  of  dtdcndiug  JJnrgs.  Everywhere  the  ninth 
man  is  to  serve  as  soldier  in  his  Town ;  other  eight  in  the 
country  are  to  feed  and  sujtport  him  :  Jherf/eruthe  (War- 
tackle,  what  is  called  Jlvriut  in  our  old  liooks^  descends  to 
the  eldest  son  of  a  fighting  man  who  had  served,  as  with 
us.  *  All  robbers  are  made  soldiers '  (unless  they  prefer 
hanging) ;  ami  iceapon-shuws  and  drill  are  kept  up.  This  is 
a  man  who  will  make  some  impression  uikju  Anarchy,  and 
its  Wends  and  Jlnns.  His  standard  was  8t.  Michael,  as  we 
have  seen,  —  u-hnse  swurd  is  derivetl  from  a  very  high  quarter ! 
A  pious  man;  —  founded  Quedlinburg  Ablx-y,  and  much  else 
in  that  kind,  having  a  pious  Wife  withal,  Mechtildis,  wlio 
tuttk  tiie  niain  hand  in  that  of  Quedlinburg;  whose  Life  is  in 
Leibnit/,'  not  the  legiblest  of  liooks.  —  On  the  whole,  a  right 
gallant  King  and  '  Fowler.'  Died,  a.d.  O.'iG  (at  Memndeben, 
a  Monastery  on  the  I'nstrut,  not  far  from  Schulpforte),  age 
sixty ;  had  reigneil  only  .seventeen  years,  and  done  so  much. 
l..ies  buried  in  Quedlinburg  Abbey:  —  any  Tond)?  I  know 
no  Life  of  liim  but  (iundlinijs,  winch  is  an  extremely  inex- 
tricable I'iece,  and  requires  mainly  to  Ik*  forgotten.  —  Hail, 
brave  Henry:  across  the  Nine  dim  Centuries,  we  .salute  thee, 
still  visible  as  a  valiant  Son  of  Cosmos  and  Son  of  Heaven, 
benelicently  sent  us;  as  a  man  who  did  in  grim  earnest  '.serve 
God '  in  his  day,  and  whose  works  accordingly  bear  fruit  to 
our  day,  and  to  all  days  I  "  — 

So  far  my  rough  Note-books  ;  which  require  again  to  be 
shut  for  the  present,  not  to  abuse  the  reader's  jiatience,  or 
lead  him  from  Ins  road. 

This  of  Markgrafs  (Gntfs  of  the  ^Lunhes,  marked  Places, 
or  Boundaries)  was  a  nitural  invention  in  that  state  of  cir- 
cumstances. It  did  not  (piite  originate  with  Henry ;  but 
was  much  perfected  by  him,  he  first  recognizing  how  essen- 
tial it  was.  On  all  frontiers  he  had  his  Graf  (Count,  Jieeve, 
G'reeve,  whom  some  think  to  be  only  Gran,  Gray,  or  Senior, 
the  hardiest,  wisest   steel-<7r</y  man  he  could   discover)  sta- 

*  Loibuitz,  Scrii>lotes  Rerum  Bninswicensiitm,  &x.  (Hanover,  1707),  i.  196. 


CiiAi-.  I.  •  ilENKV    THE    FOWLKK.  61 

y28. 

tioued  on  tlie  Marck,  strenuously  doing  watch  uikI  wanl  tht-ie  : 
the  post  of  ditliculty,  of  peril,  and  naturally  of  honor  too, 
nothing  of  a  sinecure  by  any  means.  Which  post,  like  every 
other,  always  had  a  tendency  to  become  hereditary,  if  the 
kindred  did  not  fail  in  tit  men.  And  hence  have  come  the 
innumerable  Markgraves,  Manpiises,  and  such  like,  of  modern 
tinu's :  titles  now  become  chimerical,  and  more  or  less  men- 
dacious, as  most  of  our  titles  are, — like  so  many  lUuujs 
changed  into  "  Boroughs,"  and  even  into  ''  Itotten  Boroughs," 
with  Defensive  Burij\\e\s  of  tlie  known  sort:  very  mournful 
to  discover.  Once  Norroy  was  not  all  i)asteboard !  At  the 
heart  of  that  huge  whirlwind  of  his,  Avith  its  dusty  heraldries, 
and  phantasmal  nomenclatures  now  become  mendacious,  there 
lay,  at  iirst,  always  an  earnest  human  fact.  Henry  the 
Fowler  was  so  hapjiy  as  to  have  the  fact  without  any  mix- 
ture of  mendacity :  we  are  in  the  sad  reverse  case ;  reverse 
case  not  yet  altogether  complete,  but  daily  becoming  so,  —  one 
of  the  saildest  and  strangest  ever  heard  of,  if  we  thought  of 
it  I  —  But  to  go  on  with  business. 

Markgraviates  theje  continued  to  be  ever  after,  —  Six  in 
Henry's  time  :  —  but  as  to  the  number,  jdace,  arrangement  of 
thi'm,  all  this  varied  according  to  circumstances  outward  and 
inward,  chiefly  according  to  the  regress  or  the  reintrusion  of 
the  circumambient  hostile  populations ;  and  underwent  many 
changes.  The  sea-wall  you  build,  and  what  main  floodgates 
you  establish  in  it,  will  depeiul  on  the  state  of  the  outer  sea. 
^Markgraf  of  Sh'swig  gi-ows  into  ]\Iarkgraf  of  Dltmarsch  and 
Stade  ;  retiring  over  the  Elbe,  if  Norse  Piracy  get  very  trium- 
phant. Antiveij)  falls  obsolete ;  so  does  Meissen  by  and  by. 
Liiusitz  and  Suhu'edel,  in  the  third  century  hence,  shrink  both 
into  Bnindenhurff ;  Avhich  was  long  only  a  subaltern  station, 
managed  by  deputy  from  one  or  other  of  these.  A  Markgraf 
that  prospered  in  repelling  of  his  Wends  and  Huns  had  evi- 
dently room  to  spread  himself,  and  could  become  very  great, 
and  produce  change  in  boundaries :  observe  what  (Esterreich 
(Austria)  grew  to,  and  what  Brandenburg  ;  Meissen  too,  which 
became  modern  Saxony,  a  state  once  greater  than  it  now  is. 

In  old  Books  are  Lists   of  the   primitive   Markgraves  of 


62  BILA-NDENBURG  AND   IIOHENZOLLERNS.       Book  II. 

^28. 

Brandenburg,  from  Henry's  time  downward ;  two  sets,  "  Mark- 
graves  of  the  Witekind  race,"  and  of  another:*  but  they  are 
altogether  uncertain,  a  shadowy  intermittent  set  of  Mark- 
graves,  botli  the  Witekind  set  and  tlie  Non-Witekind ;  and 
truly,  for  a  couple  of  centuries,  seem  none  of  them  to  have 
been  other  than  subaltern  Deputies,  belonging  mostly  to 
Lmisitz  or  Salzwedel ;  of  whom  therefore  we  can  say  nothing 
here,  but  miist  leave  the  first  two  hundred  years  in  their 
natural  fjrai/  state, — perhaps  sufficiently  conceivable  by  the 
reader. 

But  thus,  at  any  rate,  was  Brandenburg  (Bor  or  l>urg  of  the 
/!)'t'nfi.<i,  whatever  these  are)  fti'st  discovered  to  Christendom, 
and  added  to  the  firm  land  of  articulate  History  :  a  feat  worth 
]mtting  on  record.  Done  by  Henry  the  Fowler,  in  the  Year 
of  Grace  i)2S, — whije  (among  other  things  noticeable  in  this 
world)  our  Knut's  great-grandfather,  Gormo  Dunis,  "  Henry's 
Tributary,"  w;us  still  King  of  Denmark;  when  Harald  Blue- 
tnttth  (IV'uatand)  was  still  a  young  fellow,  with  liis  teeth  of  the 
natural  '^olor;  and  Sweu  with  the  Forked  Beard  {Tvaeskaetj, 
Double-beard,  ^'  Two-sha//'')  was  not  born;  and  the  Monks  of 
Ely  had  not  yet  (by  about  a  hundred  years)  begun  that  sing- 
ing,'' nor  the  tide  that  refusal  to  retire,  on  behalf  of  this  Knut, 
in  our  English  part  of  his  dominions. 

That  Henry  appointed  due  Wardenship  in  Brannibor  was  in 

^  Iliihner,  Genealogische  Tabelten  (Leipzig,  1725-1728),  i.  172,  173.  A  Book 
of  rare  excellence  iu  its  kiud. 

2  Without  note  or  comment,  in  the  old  Book  of  Ehj  (date  before  the  C<jn- 
qncst)  is  preserved  this  stave  ;  —  giving  picture,  if  wc  consider  it,  of  the  Fen 
Country  all  a  lake  (iis  it  was  for  half  the  year,  till  drained,  six  centuries  after), 
with  Ely  Monastery  rising  like  an  island  in  the  distance  ;  and  tlie  music  of  its 
nones  or  vespers  sounding  soft  and  far  over  the  solitude,  eiglit  hundred  years 
ago  and  more. 

Merie  sungen  the  Muncches  binnen       Merry  (genially)  sang  the  ifonhs  in 

Ely  Ely 

Tha  Cnut  ching  rew  thcrby:  As  Knut  Kinrj  rowed  (rew)  there-hy : 

Roweth  cuites  near  the  lant.  Row,  fellows  (knights),  near  the  land, 

And  here  we  thes  Muneches  saeng.        And  hear  we  these  Monks's  song. 

See  Beutham's  History  of  Eli/  (Cambridge,  1771),  p.  94. 


CiiAi-.  II.  PREUSSEN :  SAINT   ADALBERT.  63 

997. 

the  common  course.  Sure  enough,  some  Markgraf  must  take 
charge  of  Brannibor, — he  of  the  Lausitz  eastward,  for  example, 
or  he  of  Salzwedel  westward:  —  that  Brannibor,  in  time,  Avill 
itself  be  found  the  tit  place,  and  have  its  own  Markgraf  of 
Brandenburg ;  this,  and  what  in  the  next  nine  centuries  Bran- 
denburg will  grow  to,  Henry  is  far  from  surmising.  Branden- 
burg is  fairly  captured  across  the  frozen  bogs,  and  has  got  a 
warden  and  ninth-man  garrison  settled  in  it :  Brandenburg, 
like  other  things,  will  grow  to  what  it  can. 

Henry's  son  and  successor,  if  not  himself,  is  reckoned  to 
have  founded  the  Cathedral  and  Bishopric  of  Brandenburg,  — 
his  Clergy  and  he  always  longing  much  for  the  conversion  of 
these  Wends  and  Huns ;  which  indeed  was,  as  the  like  still  is, 
the  one  thing  needful  to  rugged  heathens  of  that  kind. 


CHAPTER   II. 

PREUS.SEX  :     SAIXT    ADALBEIIT. 

Five  hundretl  miles,  and  more,  to  the  east  of  Brandenburg, 
lies  a  Country  then  as  now  called  Preussen  (Prussia  Proper), 
inhabited  by  Heathens,  where  also  endeavors  at  conversion 
are  going  on,  though  without  success  hitherto.  Upon  which 
we  are  now  called  to  cast  a  glance. 

It  is  a  moory  flat  country,  full  of  lakes  and  woods,  like 
Brandenburg ;  spreading  out  into  grassy  expanses,  and  bosky 
wildernesses  humming  with 'bees;  plenty  of  bog  in  it,  but 
plenty  also  of  alluvial  mud ;  sand  too,  but  by  no  means  so 
high  a  ratio  of  it  as  in  Brandenburg ;  tracts  of  Preussen  are 
luxuriantly  grassy,  frugiferous,  apt  for  the  plough ;  and  the 
soil  generally  is  reckoned  fertile,  though  lying  so  far  north- 
ward. Part  of  the  great  plain  or  flat  which  stretches,  sloping 
insensibly,  continuously,  in  vast  expanse,  from  the  Silesian 
Mountains  to  the  amber-regions  of  the  Baltic ;  Preussen  is  the 
seaward,  more  alluvial  part  of  this,  —  extending  west  and  east, 
on  both  sides  of  the  Weichsel  ( Vistula),  from  the  regions  of 


64    BRANDENBURG  AND  IIOHENZOLLERNS.   K"^"<  if- 

007. 

the  Oder  river  to  the  main  stream  of  the  Memel.  Bordering- 
on-Russia  its  name  signifies :  Bor-Russia,  B'lussia,  Prussia ;  or 
—  some  say  it  was  only  on  a  certain  inconsiderable  river  in 
those  parts,  river  Reussen,  that  it  '•  bordered,"  and  not  on  the 
great  Country,  or  any  part  of  it,  which  now  in  our  days  is 
consi)icuously  its  next  neighbor.     "Who  knows  ?  — 

In  Henry  the  Fowler's  time,  and  long  afterwards,  Preussen 
was  a  vehemently  Heathen  country ;  the  natives  a  Miscellany 
of  rough  Serbie  Wends,  Letts,  Swedish  Goths,  or  Dryasdust 
knows  not  what;  —  very  probably  a  sprinkling  of  Swedish 
Goths,  from  old  time,  chiefly  along  the  coasts.  Dryasdust 
knows  only  that  these  Preussen  were  a  strong-boned,  iracund 
herdsman-and-lisher  people ;  highly  averse  to  be  interfered 
with,  in  their  religion  especially.  Famous  otherwise,  through 
all  the  centuries,  for  the  amber  they  had  been  used  to  fish,  and 
sell  in  foreign  parts. 

Amber,  science  declares,  is  a  kind  of  petrified  resin,  distilled 
by  pines  that  Avcre  deatl  before  the  days  of  Adam ;  wliich  is 
now  thrown  up,  in  stormy  weather,  on  that  remote  coast,  and 
is  there  fished  out  by  the  amphibious  people,  —  who  can  like- 
wise get  it  by  running  mine-shafts  into  the  sandhills  on  their 
coast ;  —  by  whom  it  is  sold  into  the  uttermost  parts  of  the 
Earth,  Arabia  and  beyond,  from  a  very  early  period  of  time. 
No  doubt  Pytheiis  had  his  eye  upon  this  valuable  product, 
when  he  ventured  into  survey  of  those  regions,  —  which  are 
still  the  great  mother  of  amber  in  our  world.  By  their  amber- 
fishery,  with  the  aid  of  dairy-produce  and  plenty  of  beef  and 
leather,  these  Heathen  Preussen,  of  uncertain  miscellaneous 
breed,  contrived  to  support  existence  in  a  substantial  manner ; 
they  figure  to  us  as  an  inarticulate,  heavy-footed,  rather  ira- 
cund people.  Their  knowledge  of  Christianity  was  trifling, 
their  aversion  to  knowing  anything  of  it  was  great. 

As  Poland,  and  the  neighbors  to  the  south,  were  already 
Christian,  and  even  the  Bohemian  Czechs  were  mostly  con- 
verted, pious  wishes  as  to  Preussen,  we  may  fancy,  were  a 
constant  feeling :  but  no  effort  hitherto,  if  efforts  were  made, 
had  come  to  anything.  Let  some  daring  missionary  go  to 
preach  in  that  country,  his  reception  is  of  the  worst,  or  per- 


CiAi.  II.  PKEUSSEN:   SAINT  ADALBERT.  65 

997. 

haps  he  is  met  on  the  frontier  with  menaces,  and  forbidden  to 
preach  at  all;  except  sorrow  and  lost  labor,  nothing  has  yet 
jiroved  attainable.  It  was  very  dangerous  to  go ;  —  and  with 
what  likelihood  of  speeding  ?  Efforts^  we  may  suppose,  aro 
rare  ;  but  the  pious  wish  being  continual  and  universal,  efforts 
can  never  altogether  cease.  From  Henry  the  Fowler's  capture 
of  Brannibor,  count  seventy  years,  we  find  Henry's  great- 
grandson  reigning  as  Elective  Kaiser,  —  Otto  III.,  last  of  the 
direct  "  Saxon  Kaisers,"  Otto  Wonder  of  the  World ;  —  and 
alongside  of  Otto's  great  transactions,  which  Avere  once  called 
MirabUia  Mundi  and  are  now  fallen  so  extinct,  there  is  the 
following  small  transaction,  a  new  attempt  to  preach  in 
Preussen,  going  on,  which,  contrariwise,  is  still  worth  taking 
notice  of. 

About  the  year  097  or  906,  Adalbert,  Bishop  of  Prag,  a  very 
zealous,  most  devout  man,  but  evidently  of  hot  temper,  and 
liable  to  get  into  quarrels,  had  determined,  after  many  painfid 
experiences  of  the  perverse  ungovernable  nature  of  corrupt 
mankind,  to  give  up  his  nominally  Christian  flock  altogether ; 
to  shake  the  dust  off  his  feet  against  I'rag,  and  devote  himself 
to  converting  those  Prussian  Heathen,  who,  across  the  fron- 
tiers, were  living  in  such  savagery,  and  express  bondage  to  the 
Devil,  worshipping  mere  stocks  and  stones.  In  this  enterprise 
he  was  encouraged  by  the  Christian  potentates  who  lay  con- 
tiguous ;  especially  by  the  Duke  of  Poland,  to  whom  such 
next-neighbors,  for  all  reasons,  were  an  eye-sorrow. 

Adalbert  went,  accordingly,  with  staff  and  scrip,  two  monks 
attending  him,  into  that  dangerous  country :  not  in  fear,  he ; 
a  devout  high-tempered  man,  verging  now  on  fifty,  his  hair 
getting  gray,  and  face  marred  with  innumerable  troubles  and 
provocations  of  past  time.  He  preached  zealously,  almost 
fiercely,  —  though  chiefl}'  with  his  eyes  and  gestures,  I  should 
think,  having  no  command  of  the  language.  At  Dantzig, 
among  the  Swedish-Goth  kind  of  Heathen,  he  had  some 
success,  or  affluence  of  attendance ;  not  elsewhere  that  we  hear 
of.  In  the  Pillau  region,  for  example,  where  he  next  landed, 
an    amphibious    Heathen   lout   hit   him    heavily   across    the 


66  BRANDENBURG  AND  HOIIEXZOLLERNS.        B.x.k  II. 

am. 

shoulders  with  the  flat  of  his  oar ;  sent  the  poor  Preacher  to 

the  gi'ouud,  face  foremost,  and  suddenly  ended   his   salutary 

discourse    for    that    time.      However,    he    pressed    forward, 

regardless  of  results,  preaching  the  Evangel  to  all  creatures 

w^ho  were  willing  or  unwilling;  —  and  pressed  at  last  into  the 

Sacred   Circuit,  the  Ji'it/noni,  or    Place   of   Oak-trees,  and    of 

Wooden  or  Stone  Idids  (Bangputtis,  Patkullos,  and   I  know 

not  what  diabolic  dumb  Blocks),  which  it  was  death  to  enter. 

The    Heathen    Priests,  as   we    may   conceive    it,   rushed  out; 

beckoned  him,  with  loud   unintelligible    hullyings  and    tierce 

gestures,  to  begone  ;  hustled,   shook   him,  shoved  liim,  as  he 

did  not   go;  then  took  to  confused  striking,  strut-k  linally  a 

death-stroke  on  the  head  of  poor  Adalbert :  so  that "  he  stretched 

out  both  his  arms  ('  Jesus,  receive  me  thou ! ')  and  fell  with 

his  face  to  the  ground,  and  lay  dead  there, -?- in  the  form  of 

a  crucifix,"  say  his  Biographers  :   only  the  attendant  monks 

esca])ing  to  tell. 

Attendant  monks,  or  Adallx-rt,  had  known  nothing  of  their 
being  on  forbidden  ground.  Their  accounts  of  the  phenome- 
non accordingly  leave  it  oidy  half  ex[)lained :  How  he  was 
surprised  by  armed  Heathen  Devil's-servants  in  his  sleep ; 
was  violently  set  upon,  and  his  "beautiful  Iwwels  (pulchra 
risrrro)  were  run  through  with  seven  spears  :  "  but  this  of  the 
Rnmova,  or  Sacred  Bang]iuttis  Church  of  Oak-trees,  perhaps 
chief  Rnmora  of  the  Country,  rashly  intruded  into,  with 
consequent  strokes,  and  fall  in  the  form  of  a  crucifix,  appears 
now  to  be  the  intelligible  account.*  We  will  take  it  for  the 
real  manner  of  Adalbert's  exit; — no  doubt  of  the  essential 
transaction,  or  that  it  was  a  verj'  flaming  one  on  both  sides. 
The  date  given  is  23d  April,  997 ;  date  famous  in  the  Romish 
Calendar  since. 

He  was  a  Czech  by  birth,  son  of  a  Heathen  Bohemian  man 
of  rank :  his  name  (Adalbert,  A'lbert,  Bright-m-Nobleness)  he 
got  "  at  ^lagdeburg,  whither  he  had  gone  to  study  "  and  seek 
baptism ;  where,  as   generally  elsewhere,  his   fervent   devout 

1  Baillet,  Vies  des  Saints  (Paris,  1739),  iii.  722.  Bollandus,  Acta  Sane- 
toriini,  Aprili.*  torn,  iii  (die  2.3";  in  Edition  Venetiis,  17.'38),pp.  174-205.  Voigt, 
Geschichte  Preussens  (Kouigsberg,  1827-1839),  i.  266-270. 


CiiAi-.  II.  PKEUSSEN ;   SAINT  ADALBERT.  67 

007. 

ways  were  admirable  to  Ms  fellow-creatures.  A  "  man  of 
genius,"  we  may  well  say  :  one  of  Heaven's  bright  souls,  born 
into  the  muddy  darkness  of  this  world ;  —  laid  hold  of  by 
a  transcendent  Message,  in  the  due  transcendent  degree.  He 
entered  Prag,  as  Bishop,  not  in  a  carriage  and  six,  but 
"  walking  barefoot ;  "  his  contempt  for  earthly  shadows  being 
always  extreme.  Accordingly,  his  quarrels  with  the  scvculum 
were  constant  and  endless ;  his  wanderings  up  and  down, 
and  vehement  arguings,  in  this  world,  to  little  visible 
effect,  lasted  all  his  days.  We  can  perceive  he  was  short- 
tempered,  thin  of  skin :  a  violently  sensitive  man.  For 
example,  once  in  the  Bohemian  solitudes,  on  a  summer  after- 
noon, in  one  of  liis  thousand-fold  pilgrimings  and  wayfarings, 
he  had  lain  down  to  rest,  his  one  or  two  monks  and  he,  in 
some  still  glade,  '•  with  a  stone  for  his  pillow "'  (as  was  always 
his  iHistom  even  in  Brag),  and  had  fallen  sound  asleep.  A 
Bohemian  shepherd  chanced  to  pass  that  way,  warbling  some- 
tliing  on  his  jiipe,  as  he  wended  towards  looking  after  liis 
liqck.  Seeing  the  sleepers  on  their  stone  pillows,  the  thought- 
less Czech  mischievously  blew  louder, — started  Adalbert 
broad  awake  upon  him  ;  who,  in  the  fury  of  the  first  moment, 
shrieked :  "  Deafness  on  thee  !  Man  cruel  to  the  human  sense 
of  hearing !  "  or  words  to  that  effect.  Which  curse,  like  the 
most  of  Adalbert's,  was  })unctually  fulfilled :  the  amazed  Czech 
stood  deaf  as  a  post,  and  went  about  so  all  his  days  after  ;  nay, 
for  long  centuries  (perhaps  down  to  the  present  time,  in  remote 
parts),  no  Czech  blows  into  his  pipe  in  the  woodlands,  without 
certain  precautions,  and  preliminary  fuglings  of  a  devotional 
nature.^  —  From  which  miracle,  as  indeed  from  many  other 
indications,  I  infer  an  irritable  nervous-system  in  poor  Adal- 
bert;  and  find  this  death  in  the  Romova  was  probably  a 
furious  mixture  of  Earth  and  Heaven. 

At  all  events,  he  lies  there,  beautiful  though  bloody,  "in 
the  form  of  a  crucifix ; "  zealous  Adalbert,  the  hot  spirit  of 
him  now  at  last  cold  ; — and  has  clapt  his  mark  upon  the 
Heathen  coimtry,  protesting  to  the  last.  This  was  in  the 
year  997,  think  the  best  Antiquaries.     It  happened  at  a  place 

1  BollanJus,  ubi  suprk 


G8  BRANDENBURG  AND  HOHENZOLLERNS.       Book  il. 

called  Fischhansen,  near  Pillau,  say  they ;  on  that  narrow  strip 
of  country  which  lies  between  the  Baltic  and  the  Frische  Haf 
(immense  Lake,  Wash  as  we  should  say,  or  leakage  of  shallow 
water,  one  of  two  such,  which  the  Baltic  has  spilt  out  of  it  in 
that  quarter),  —  near  the  Fort  and  Haven  of  Pillau ;  where 
there  has  been  much  stir  since ;  where  Napoleon,  for  one 
thing,  had  some  tough  fighting,  prior  to  the  Treaty  of  Tilsit, 
fifty  years  ago.  The  place  —  or  if  not  this  i)lace,  then 
Gnesen  in  Poland,  the  final  burial-place  of  Adalbert,  which  is 
better  known  —  has  ever  since  had  a  kind  of  sacredness ; 
better  or  worse  expressed  by  mankind :  in  the  form  of  canoni- 
zation, endless  pilgrimages,  rumored  miracles,  and  such  like. 
For  shortly  afterwards,  the  neighboring  Potentate,  Bole&laus 
Duke  of  Poland,  heart-strnck  at  the  event,  drew  sword  on 
these  Heathens,  and  having  (if  I  remember)  gained  some 
victory,  bargained  to  have  the  Body  of  Adalbert  delivered  to 
him  at  its  weight  in  gold.  Body,  all  cut  in  pieces,  and  nailed 
to  poles,  had  long  ignominiously  withered  in  the  wind  ; 
perhaps  it  was  now  only  buried  overnight  for  the  nonce  ? 
Being  dug  up,  or  being  cut  down,  and  put  into  the  balance,  it 
weighed  —  less  than  was  expected.  It  was  as  light  as  gos- 
samer, said  pious  rumor.  Had  such  an  excellent  odor  too  j  — 
and  came  for  a  mere  nothing  of  gold  !  This  was  Adalbert's 
first  miracle  after  death ;  in  life  he  had  done  many  hundreds 
of  them,  and  has  done  millions  since,  —  chiefly  upon  paralytic 
nervous-systems,  and  the  element  of  pious  rumor ;  —  which 
any  Devil's-Advocate  then  extant  may  explain  if  he  can ! 
Kaiser  Otto,  Wonder  of  the  World,  who  had  known  St.  Adal- 
bert in  life,  and  much  honored  him,  "  made  a  pilgrimage  to  his 
tomb  at  Gnesen  in  the  year  1000  ; "  —  and  knelt  there,  we 
may  believe,  with  thoughts  wondrous  enough,  great  and  sad 
enough. 

There  is  no  hope  of  converting  Preussen,  then?  It  will 
never  leave  off  its  dire  worship  of  Satan,  then  ?  Say  not, 
Never ;  that  is  a  weak  word.  St.  Adalbert  has  stamped 
his  life  upon  it,  in  the  form  of  a  crucifix,  in  lasting  protest 
against  that. 


("HAP.  III.   *MARKGRAVES  OF  BRANDENBURG.       69 


CHAPTER  III. 

MARKGRAVES  OF  BRAXDENBURG. 

Meanwhile  our  first  enigmatic  set  of  Markgraves,  or 
Dej^uty-Markgraves,  at  Brancleuburg,  are  likewise  faring  ill. 
Whoever  these  valiant  steel-gray  gentlemen  might  be  (which 
Dryasdust  does  not  the  least  .kuow,  and  only  makes  you 
more  uncertain  the  more  he  pretends  to  tell),  one  thing  is 
very  evident,  they  had  no  peaceable  possession  of  the  place, 
nor  for  above  a  hundred  years,  a  constant  one  on  any  terms. 
The  Wends  were  highly  disinclined  to  conversion  and  obe- 
dienoe :  once  and  again,  and  still  again,  they  burst  up ;  got 
temporary  hold  of  Brandenburg,  hoping  to  keep  it ;  and  did 
frightful  heterodoxies  there.  So  that  to  our  distressed  imagi- 
nation those  poor  "Markgraves  of  Witekind  descent,"  our 
first  set  in  Brandenburg,  become  altogether  shadowy,  inter- 
mittent, enigmatic,  painfully  actual  as  they  once  were.  Take 
one  instance,  omitting  others ;  which  happily  proves  to  be 
the  finish  of  that  first  shadowy  line,  and  introduces  us  to  a 
new  set  very  slightly  more  substantial. 

End  of  the  First  Shadowy  Line. 

In  the  year  1023,  near  a  century  after  Henry  the  Fowler's 
feat,  the  Wends  bursting  up  in  never-imagined  fury,  get 
hold  of  Brandenburg  again,  —  for  the  third  and,  one  would 
fain  hope,  the  last  time.  The  reason  was,  words  spoken 
by  the  then  IMarkgraf  of  Brandenburg,  Dietrich  or  Theodoric, 
last  of  the  Witekind  Markgraves ;  who  hearing  that  a  Cou- 
sin of  his  (Markgraf  or  Deputy-Markgraf  like  himself)  was 
about  wedding  his  daughter  to  "  Mistevoi  King  of  the 
Wends,"  said  too  earnestly  :    '*  Don't !     W^ill   you   give  youi 


70  BRANDENBURG  AND  HOHENZOLLERNS.        Bix.k  H 

1150. 

daughter  to  a  dog?"  Word  "dog"  was  used,  says  my  au- 
thority.^ Which  threw  Kiug  Mistcvoi  into  a  paroxysm,  and 
raised  tlie  Wends.  Their  butchery  of  the  Gorman  popula- 
tion in  poor  Brandenburg,  especially  of  the  Priests  ;  their 
burning  of  the  Cathedral,  and  of  Church  and  State  generally, 
may  be  conceived.  The  Ilnrlunrjsherg,  —  in  our  time  3Iarien- 
berff,  pleasant  Hill  near  Brandenburg,  with  its  gardens,  vines, 
and  whitened  cottages:  —  on  the  top  of  this  ITarlungsberg 
the  Wends  "set  up  their  god  Trigla}>h;"  a  thive-heailed 
Monster  of  which  I  have  seen  prints,  beyond  measure  ugly. 
Bomething  like  three  whale's<'ubs  combined  by  boiling,  or 
a  triple  porpoise  dead-ilrunk  (for  the  dull  eyes  are  inexpres- 
sible, ivs  well  as  the  amorphous  shape)  :  ugliest  and  stupidest 
of  all  false  gods.  This  these  victorious  Wends  set  uj)  on 
the  Harlungsberg,  Year  10l-*.3;  and  worshipped  after  their 
jort,  benighted  mortals,  —  with  joy,  for  a  time.  The  Cathe- 
dral was  in  ashes,  I'riests  all  slain  or  fled,  shadowy  iMark- 
graves  the  like  ;  Church  and  SUite  lay  in  ashes  ;  and  Triglaph, 
iike  a  Triple  ror])oise  under  the  influence  of  laudanum,  stood 
(I  know  not  whether  on  his  head  or  on  liis  tail)  aloft  on  the 
Harlungsberg,  as  the  Supreme  of  this  Universe,  for  the  time 
being. 

Second  Shadowy  Line. 

Whereupon  the  Dittnarsrh-Stade  Markgrafs  (as  some  des- 
ignate them)  had  to  interfere,  these  shaxlowy  Deputies  of 
the  Witeklnd  breed  having  vanished  in  that  manner.  The 
Ditmai-scliers  recovered  the  place  ;  and  with  some  fighting, 
did  in  the  main  at  least  keep  Triglaph  and  the  Wends  out 
of  it  in  time  coming.  Tlie  Wends  were  fiercely  troublesome, 
and  fought  much;  but  I  think  they  never  actuall}   got  hold 

1  See  Michaelis  Chitr  und  FurstUchcn  Ilanser,  i.  257-259:  Pauli,  Allijcmeine 
Preussische  Slaiits-Geschichte  (Ilalle,  176O-17G0),  i.  1-182  (the  ".stauilard  work" 
on  Pmssian  History :  in  eiglit  watery  quartos,  intoleral)le  to  human  nature)  : 
Kloss,  Valerldndische  Gemaltit  {Berlin,  1833),  i.  59-108  (a  Bookseller'.s  compila- 
tion, with  some  curious  Excerpts): — under  which  lie  modem  Sagittarius, 
ancient  Adam  of  Bremen,  Ditmarus  Mersebun/ensis,  Wittcltindus  Corbeiensis, 
Arnoldus  Lubecensis,  &c.  &c.  to  all  lengths  and  breadths. 


CHA1-.  III.   MARKGRAVES  OF  BRANDENBURG.       71 

1130. 

of  Brandenburg  again.  They  were  beginning  to  get  notions 
of  conversion :  well  preached  to  and  well  beaten  upon,  you 
cannot  hold  out  forever.  Even  Mistevoi  at  one  time  pro- 
fessed tendencies  to  Christianity ;  perhaps  partly  for  his 
Bride's  sake,  —  the  dog,  we  may  call  him,  in  a  milder  sense ! 
But  he  relapsed  di-eadfully,  after  that  insult ;  and  his  son 
worse.  On  the  other  hand,  Mistevoi's  grandson  was  so  zeal- 
ous he  went  about  with  the  IVIissionary  Preachers,  and  inter- 
preted their  German  into  Wendish :  "  Oh,  my  poor  Wends, 
will  ^ou  hear,  then,  will  you  understand  ?  This  solid  Earth 
is  but  a  shadow  :  Heaven  forever  or  else  Hell  forever,  that 
is  the  reality!  "  Such  "difference  between  right  and  wrong" 
no  Wend  had  heard  of  before :  quite  tremendously  "  impor- 
tant if  true  !  "  —  And  doubtless  it  impressed  many.  There 
are  heavy  Ditmarsch  strokes  for  the  unimj)ressible.  By  de- 
grees all  got  converted,  though  numy  wore  killed  first ;  and, 
one  way  or  other,  the  Wends  are  preparing  to  efface  them- 
selves as  a  distinct  people. 

This  Stade-and-Ditmarsch  family  (of  Anglish  or  Saxon 
breed,  if  that  is  an  advantage)  seem  generally  to  have  fur- 
nished the  Sahwedel  Office  as  well,  of  which  Brandenburg 
was  an  offshoot,  done  by  deputy,  usually  also  of  their  kin. 
They  lasted  in  Brandenburg  rather  more  than  a  hundred 
years  ;  —  with  little  or  no  Book-History  that  is  good  to  read  ; 
tlieir  History  inarticulate  rather,  and  stamped  beneficently 
on  the  face  of  things.  Otto  is  a  common  name  among  them. 
One  of  their  sisters,  too,  Adelheid  (Adelaide,  Nobleness)  had 
a  strange  adventure  with  "  Ludwig  the  Springer : "  romantic 
mythic  man,  famous  in  the  German  world,  over  whom  my 
readers  and  I  must  not  pause  at  this  time. 

In  Salzwedel,  in  Ditmarsch,  or  wherever  stationed,  they 
had  a  toilsome  fighting  life :  sore  difficulties  with  their  Dit- 
marschers  too,  with  the  plundering  Danish  populations  ;  Mark- 
graf  after  Markgraf  getting  killed  in  the  business.  "  Erscldugen, 
slain  fighting  with  the  Heathen,"  say  the  old  Books,  and 
pass  on  to  another.  Of  all  which  there  is  now  silence  for- 
ever. So  many  years  men  fought  and  planned  and  struggled 
there,  all   forgotten  now  except   by  the  gods ;    and   silently 


72  BllANDENBURG  AND  HOHENZOLLERNS.        Bcok  II. 

1130. 

gave  away  their  life,  before  those  countries  could  become 
fencible  and  habitable  !  Nay,  my  friend,  it  is  our  lot  too  : 
and  if  we  would  win  honor  in  this  Universe,  the  rumor  of 
Histories  and  Morning  Newspapers,  — which  have  to  become 
wholly  zero,  one  day,  and  fall  dumb  as  stones,  and  which 
were  not  perhaps  very  wise  even  while  speaking,  —  will  help 
us  little !  — 

Substantial  MarTcgraves  :  Glimpse  of  the  Contemporary 
Kaisers. 

The  Ditmarsch-Stade  kindred,  much  slain  in  battle  with 
the  Heathen,  and  otherwise  beaten  upon,  died  out,  about  the 
year  1130  (earlier  perhaps,  perhaps  later,  for  all  is  shadowy 
still) ;  and  were  succeeded  in  the  Salzwedql  part  of  their 
function  by  a  kindred  called  "  of  Ascanien  and  Ballenstiidt ;  " 
the  Ascanier  or  Anhalt  Markgraves ;  whose  History,  and  that 
of  Brandenburg,  becomes  henceforth  articulate  to  us  ;  a  His- 
tory not  doubtful  or  shadowy  any  longer ;  but  ascertainable, 
if  reckoned  worth  ascertaining.  Who  succeeded  in  Dit- 
marsch,  let  us  by  no  means  inquire.  The  Empire  itself  was 
in  some  disorder  at  this  time,  more  abstruse  of  aspect  than 
usual ;  and  these  Northern  Markgrafs,  already  become  im- 
portant people,  and  deep  in  general  politics,  had  their  own 
share  in  the  confusion  that  was  going. 

It  Avas  about  this  same  time  that  a  second  line  of  Kaisers 
had  died  out :  the  Frankish  or  Salic  line,  who  had  succeeded 
to  the  Saxon,  of  Henry  the  Fowler's  blood.  For  the  Em- 
pire too,  though  elective,  had  always  a  tendency  to  become 
hereditaiy,  and  go  in  lines  :  if  the  last  Kaiser  left  a  son  not 
unfit,  who  so  likely  as  the  son  ?  But  he  needed  to  be  fit, 
otherwise  it  would  not  answer,  —  otherwise  it  might  be  worse 
for  him  !  There  were  great  labors  in  the  Empire  too,  as 
well  as  on  the  Sclavic  frontier  of  it :  brave  men  fighting 
against  anarchy  (actually  set  in  pitched  fight  against  it,  and 
not  alwa3'S  strong  enough),  —  toiling  sore,  according  to  their 
faculty,  to  pull  the  innumerable  crooked  things  straight. 
Some  agreed  well  with  the  Pope,  —  as  Henry  II.,  who  founded 


CiiAi'.  III.       MARKGRAVES   OF   BRANDENBURG.  78 

iiao.  * 

Bamberg  Bishopric,  and  much  else  of  the  like  ;  ^  "  a  sore  saint 
for  the  crown,"  as  was  said  of  David  I.,  his  Scotch  congener, 
by  a  descendant.  Others  disagreed  very  much  indeed ;  — 
Henry  IV. 's  scene  at  Oanossa,  with  Pope  Hildebrand  and  the 
pious  Countess  (year  1077,  Kaiser  of  the  Holy  Koman  Em- 
pire waiting,  three  days,  in  the  snow,  to  kiss  the  foot  of 
excommunicative  Hildebrand),  has  impressed  itself  on  all 
memories  !  Poor  Henry  rallied  out  of  that  abasement,  and 
dealt  a  stroke  or  two  on  Hildebrand ;  but  fell  still  lower  be- 
fore long,  his  very  Son  going  against  him ;  and  came  almost 
to  actual  want  of  bread,  had  not  the  Bishop  of  Liege  been 
good  to  him.  Nay,  after  death,  he  lay  four  years  waiting 
vainly  even  for  burial,  —  but  indeed  cared  little  about  that. 

Certainly  this  Son  of  his,  Kaiser  Henry  V.,  does  not  shine 
in  filial  piety :  but  probably  the  poor  lad  himself  was  hard 
bested.  He  also  came  to  die,  a.d.  1125,  still  little  over  forty, 
and  was  the  last  of  the  Prankish  Kaisers.  He  "left  the 
ReicJis-Insignien  [Crown,  Sceptre  and  Coronation  gear]  to 
his  Widow  and  young  Priedrich  of  Hohenstauffen,"  a  sister's 
son  of  his,  — hoping  the  said  Priedrich  might,  partly  by  that 
help,  follow  as  Kaiser.  Which  Priedrich  could  not  do  ;  being 
wheedled,  both  the  Widow  and  he,  out  of  their  insignia, 
under  false  pretences,  and  otherwise  left  in  the  lurch.  Not 
Priedrich,  but  one  Lothar,  a  stirring  man  who  had  grown 
potent  in  the  Saxon  countries,  was  elected  Kaiser.  In  the 
end,  after  waiting  till  Lothar  was  done,  Priedrich's  race  did 
succeed,  and  with  brilliancy,  —  Kaiser  Barbarossa  being  that 
same  Priedrich's  son.  In  regard  to  which  dim  complicacies, 
take  this  Excerpt  from  the  imbroglio  of  Manuscripts,  before 
they  go  into  the  fire  :  — 

"By  no  means  to  be  forgotten  that  the  Widow  we  here 
speak  of.  Kaiser  Henry  V.'s  Widow,  who  brought  no  heir  to 
Henry  V.,  was  our  English  Henry  Beauclerc's  daughter,  — 
granddaughter  therefore  of  William  Conqueror,  —  the  same 
who,  having  (in  1127,  the  second  year  of  her  widowhood)  mar- 

1  Kohler,  pp.  102-104.  See,  for  instance,  Description  de  la  Table  d'Autel  en 
or  fin,  donn€e  a  la  Calh^drale  de  Bale,  par  V Empereur  Henri  II.  en  1019  (Poren- 
Sruy,  1838). 


74  BRANDENBURG  AND  HOHENZOLLERNS.        Book  il. 

1 142. 

ried  Godefroi  Count  of  Ajijou,  produpod  our  Henry  IT.  and  our 
Plantageuets ;  and  thert-by,  through  her  victorious  Controver- 
sies with  King  Stephen  (that  noble  peer  whose  breeches  stood 
him  so  cheap),  became  very  celebrated  as  *  the  Empress 
Maud/  in  oar  old  History-Books.  Mathildis,  Dowager  of 
Kaiser  Henry  V.,  to  whom  he  gave  his  Iveichs-lnsignia  at 
dying :  she  is  the  *  Empress  JNIaud '  of  English  Books  ;  and 
relates  herself  in  this  manner  to  the  Hohenstauffen  Dynasty, 
and  intricate  German  vicissitudes.  Be  thankful  for  any  hook 
whatever  on  which  to  hang  half  an  acre  of  thrums  in  fixed 
position,  out  of  your  way ;  the  smallest  flint-spark,  in  a  world 
all  black  and  unrememberable,  will  be  welcome."  — 

And  so  we  return  to  lirandenl)urg  and  the   '' Ascunicn  and 
Ballenstddt "  series  of  Markgraves. 


CHAPTER   IV. 


ALBEUT    THE    BEAR. 


This  Ascanien,  happily,  has  nothing  to  do  with  Brute  of 
Troy  or  the  pious  /Eneas's  son  ;  it  is  simply  the  name  of  a 
most  ancient  Castle  (etymology  luiknown  to  me,  ruins  still 
dimly  traceable)  on  the  north  slope  of  the  Hartz  ^Nlountains  ; 
short  way  from  Aschersleben,  —  the  Castle  and  Town  of 
Aschersleben  are,  so  to  speak,  a  second  edition  of  Ascanien. 
Ballenstadt  is  still  older ;  Ballenstadt  was  of  age  in  Charle- 
magne's time  ;  and  is  still  a  respectable  little  Town  in  that 
upland  range  of  country.  The  kindred,  called  Grafs  and 
ultimately  Jlerzogs  (Dukes)  of  "  Ascanien  and  Balleustiidt," 
are  very  famous  in  old  German  History,  especially  down 
from  this  date.  Some  reckon  that  they  had  intermittently 
been  Mai-kgrafs,  in  their  region,  long  before  this ;  which  is 
conceivable  enough:  at  all  events  it  is  very  plain  they  did 
now  attain  the  Office  in  Sahu-edel  (straightway  shifting  it 
to  Brandenburg)  ;  and  held  it  continuously,  it  and  much  else 


Chap.  IV.         *  ALBERT   THE    BEAR.  75 

1142. 

that   lay   adjacent,    for    centuries,    in   a    highly   conspicuous 

manner. 

In  Brandenburg  they  lasted  for  about  two  hundred  years  ; 
in  their  Saxon  dignities,  the  younger  branch  of  them  did 
not  die  out  (and  give  place  to  the  Wettins  that  now  are) 
for  five  hundred.  Nay  they  have  still  their  representatives 
on  the  Earth :  Leopold  of  Anhalt-Dessau,  celebrated  '•  Old 
Dessauer,"  come  of  the  junior  branches,  is  lineal  head  of  the 
kin  in  Friedrich  AVilhelm's  time  (while  our  little  Fritzchen 
lies  asleej)  in  his  cradle  at  Berlin)  ;  and  a  certain  Prince  of 
Auh5,lt-Zevbst,  Colonel  in  the  Prussian  Army,  authentic 
Prince,  but  with  purse  much  shorter  than  pedigree,  will  have 
a  Daughter  by  and  by,  who  will  go  to  Russia,  and  become 
almost  too  conspicuous,  as  Catharine  II.,  there  !  — 

''Brandenburg  now  as  afterwards,"  says  one  of  my  old 
l*apers,  "  was  officially  reckoned  Siixou ;  part  of  the  big 
Duchy  of  Saxony ;  where  certain  famed  Billimgs,  lineage  of 
an  old  'Count  Bilking'  (connected  or  not  with  lUllinf/s-gCLte 
in  our  country,  I  do  not  know)  had  long  borne  sway.  Of 
which  big  old  Billungs  I  will  say  nothing  at  all;  —  this  only, 
that  they  died  out ;  and  a  certain  Albert,  '  Count  of  Ascanien 
and  Balleustiidt'  (say,  of  Anhalt,  in  modern  terms),  whose 
mother  was  one  of  their  daughters,  came  in  for  the  uorii^^^.i 
part  of  their  inheritance.  He  made  a  clutch  at  the  Southern 
too,  but  did  not  long  retain  that.  Being  a  man  very  swift 
and  very  sharp,  at  once  nimble  and  strong,  in  the  huge  scram- 
ble that  there  then  was,  —  Uncle  Billung  dead  without  heirs, 
a  Salic  line  of  emperors  going  or  gone  out,  and  a  Hohenstauffen 
not  yet  come  in,  —  he  made  a  rich  game  of  it  for  himself  ;  the 
rather  as  Lothar,  the  intermediate  Kaiser,  was  his  cousin,  and 
there  were  other  good  cards  which  he  played  well. 

''  This  is  he  they  call  '  Albert  the  Bear  {Albrecht  der  Bar) ; ' 
first  of  the  Ascanien  Markgraves  of  Brandenburg ;  —  first 
wholly  definite  Marhgraf  of  Brandenburg  that  there  is  ;  once 
a  very  shining  figure  in  the  world,  though  now  fallen  dim 
enough  again.  It  is  evident  he  had  a  quick  eye,  as  well  as 
a  strong  hand ;  and  could  pick  what  way  was  straightest 
among  crooked  things.     He  got  the  Xorthern  part  of  what 


76  BRANDENBUKG   AND   IIUlIENZuLl.EKXS.        Book  II 

1142. 

is  still  called  Saxony,  and  kept  it  in  his  family;  got  the 
iJrandenburg  Countries  withal,  got  the  Lausitz ;  was  the 
shining  figure  and  great  man  of  the  North  in  his  day.  The 
Markgrafdom  of  Salzwedel  (which  soon  became  of  Branden- 
hurfj)  he  very  naturally  acquired  (a.d.  1142  or  earlier);  very 
naturally,  cunsideriug  what  Saxon  and  other  honors  and  pos- 
sessions he  had  already  got  hold  of."  — 

"We  can  only  say,  it  was  the  luckiest  of  events  for  Bran- 
denburg, and  the  beginning  of  all  the  better  destinies  it  has 
had.  A  conspicuous  Country  ever  since  in  the  world,  and 
which  grows  ever  more  so  in  our  late  times. 

lie  had  many  wars  ;  inextricable  coil  of  claimings,  quar- 
rellings  and  agreeings  :  fought  much,  —  fought  in  Italy,  too, 
"against  the  Pagans"  (Saracens,  that  is).  Cousin  to  one  Kai- 
ser, the  Lothar  above  named ;  then  a  chief  stay  of  the  Hohen- 
stauffen,  of  the  two  Hohenstauffens  who  followed  :  a  restless, 
much-managing,  wide-warring  man.  He  stood  true  by  the 
great  Barbarossa,  second  of  the  llohenstauffen,  greatest  of 
all  the  Kaisers ;  which  was  a  luck  for  him,  and  perhaps  a 
merit.  He  kept  well  with  three  Kaisers  in  his  time.  Had 
great  quarrels  with  "  Henry  the  Lion  "  about  that  "  Billung  " 
Saxon  Heritage;  Henry  carrying  off  the  better  part  of  it 
from  Albert.  Except  that  same  Henry,  head  of  the  Guelphs 
or  Welfs,  who  had  not  Albert's  talent,  though  wider  lands 
than  Albert,  there  was  no  German  prince  so  important  in 
that  time. 

He  transferred  the  Markgrafdom  to  Brandenburg,  probably 
as  more  central  in  his  wide  lands;  Salzwedel  is  henceforth 
the  led  Markgrafdom  or  3Iarck,  and  soon  falls  out  of  notice 
in  the  world.  Salzwedel  is  called  henceforth  ever  since  the 
"  Old  ^larck  {Alte  March,  AUmarck) ; '"  uhe  Brandenburg  coun- 
tries getting  the  name  of  "  New  Marck."  Modern  Neumark, 
modern  "  Middle-Marck  "  (in  which  stands  Brandenburg  itself 
in  our  time),  ''  f Wct'r-Marck  "  (Outside  Marck,  —  word  Ucker 
is  still  seen  in  Ukraine,  for  instance)  :  these  are  posterior  Divi- 
sions, fallen  upon  as  Brandenburg  (under  Albert  chiefly) 
enlarged  itself,  and  needed  new  Official  parcellings  into  de- 
partments. 


CiiAi'.  IV.  ALBERT   THE   BEAK.  77 

1152. 

Under  Albert  the  Markgrafdom  had  risen  to  be  an  Elec- 
torate withah  The  Markgraf  of  Brandenburg  was  now  fur- 
thermore the  Kut'fiirst  of  Brandenburg ;  officially  "  Arch-trea- 
surer of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire ; "  and  one  of  the  Seven 
who  have  a  right  (which  becanie  about  this  time  an  exclusive 
one  for  those  Seven)  to  choose,  to  kiereii  the  Romish  Kaiser ; 
and  who  are  therefore  called  Kur  Princes,  Kurfiirste  or  Elec- 
tors, as  the  highest  dignity  except  the  Kaiser's  own.  In 
reference  to  which  abstruse  matter,  likely  to  concern  us 
somewhat,  will  the  uninstructed  English  reader  consent  to 
the  following  Excerpt,  sliglitly  elucidatory  of  KurfUrsts  and 
their  function  ? 

"  Fiirst  (Prince)  I  suppose  is  equivalent  originally  to  our 
noun  of  nund)er,  First.  The  old  verb  kleren  (participle  erho- 
ren  still  in  use,  not  to  mention  '  Yal-kyr '  and  other  instances) 
is  essentially  the  same  word  as  our  choose,  being  written  kiesen 
as  well  as  kieren.  Nay,  say  the  etymologists,  it  is  also  Avritten 
kiissen  (to  kiss,  —  to  clioose  \\'\t\\  such  emphaL'is  !),  and  is  not 
likely  to  fall  obsolete  in  that  form.  — The  other  Six  Electoral 
Dignitaries  who  grew  to  Eight  l)y  degrees,  and  may  be  worth 
noting  once  by  the  readers  of  this  Book,  are :  — 

"1°.  Three  Ecclesiastical,  Mainz,  Coin,  Trier  (Mentz,  Co- 
logne, Treves),  Archbishops  all,  with  sovereignty  and  territory 
more  or  less  considerable ;  —  who  used  to  be  elected  as  Popes 
are,  theoretically  by  their  respective  Chapters  and  the  Heav- 
enly Inspirations,  but  practically  by  the  intrigues  and  pres- 
sures of  the  neighboring  Potentates,  especially  France  and 
Austria. 

"  2°.  Three  Secular,  Sachsen,  Pfalz,  Buhmen  (Saxony,  Palati- 
nate, Bohemia) ;  of  which  the  last,  DlJJimen,  since  it  fell  from 
being  a  Kingdom  in  itself,  to  being  a  Province  of  Austria,  is 
not  very  vocal  in  the  Diets.  These  Six,  with  Brandenburg, 
are  the  Seven  Kurfiirsts  in  old  time  ;  Septemvirs  of  the  Coun- 
try, so  to  speak. 

"But  now  Pfalz,  in  the  Thirty-Years  War  (under  our 
Prince  Rupert's  Father,  whom  the  Germans  call  the  *  Winter- 
King  '),  got  abrogated,  put  to  the  ban,  so  far  as  an  indignant 
Kaiser  could ;  and  the  vote  and  K^lr  of  Pfalz  w^q^  given   to 


78  BRANDENBURG  AND  IIOUENZOLLERNS.       Book  II. 

1J7U. 

his  Cousin  of  JJaieni  (Bavaria),  —  so  far  as  an  indignant  Kai- 
ser could.  However,  at  the  Peace  of  Westplialia  (1C4S)  it 
was  found  incompetent  to  any  Kaiser  to  abrogate  J'/ulz  or 
the  like  of  Pfalz,  a  KurfUrst  of  the  Empire,  So,  after  jargon 
inconceivable,  it  was  settled,  That  J'/<ifz  must  be  reinstated, 
though  with  territories  much  clipped,  and  at  the  bottom  of 
the  list,  not  the  top  as  formerly;  and  that  Jinlcm,  who  could 
not  stand  to  be  balked  after  twenty  years'  i)ossessiou,  must 
be  made  E'njhth  Elector.  The  Ninth,  we  saw  (Year  1092), 
was  Gentleman  Ernst  of  Hanover.  There  never  was  any 
Tenth;  and  the  Holy  Iio/nisrhe  Rrlrk,  which  was  a  grand  ob- 
ject once,  Imt  had  gone  about  in  a  superannuated  and  plainly 
crazy  state  for  some  centuries  back,  was  at  last  jiut  out  of 
])ain.  by  Napoleon.  '  ()th  August,  1800,'  and  allowed  to  cease 
from  this  world."  ' 

None  of  Albert's  wars  are  so  comfortable  to  reflect  on  as 
those  lie  had  with  the  anarchic.  Wends;  whom  he  now  fairly 
beat  to  jKjwder,  and  I'ither  swi'pt  away,  or  else  damped  down 
into  Christianity  and  keeping  of  the  })eace.  Swept  them  away 
otherwise ;  "  ];oopling  their  lands  extensively  with  Colonists 
from  Holland,  whojii  an  inroad  of  the  sea  had  rendered  home- 
less there."  Wliirli  sundy  was  a  useful  exchange.  Nothing 
better  is  known  to  me  of  Albert  the  Bear  than  this  his  intro- 
ducing large  nunxbers  of  Dutch  Netherlandi-rs  into  those  coun- 
tries ;  men  thrown  out  of  work,  who  already  knew  how  to 
deal  with  bog  and  sand,  l)y  mixing  au<l  delving,  and  who  first 
taught  Brandenburg  what  greenness  and  cow-pasture  was. 
The  Wends,  in  presence  of  such  things,  could  not  but  consent 
more  and  more  to  efface  themselves,  —  cither  to  become  Ger- 
man, and  grow  milk  and  cheese  in  the  Dutch  manner,  or  to 
disapjiear  from  the  world. 

The  Weudish  Princes  had  a  taste  for  German  wives  ;  in 
which  just  taste  the  Albert  genealogy  was  extremely  willing 
to  indulge  them.  Affinities  produce  inheritances ;  by  proper 
marriage-contracts  you  can  settle  on  what  side  the  most  con- 
tingent inheritance  shall  at  length  fall.  Dim  but  pretty  cer- 
tain lies  a  time  coming  when  the  Wendish  Princes  also  shall 

1  Ms.  penes  me. 


CuAi-.  IV.  ALBERT  THE   BEAK.  79 

1170. 

Lave  effaced  themselves ;  and  all  shall  be  Gerraan-Branden- 
burgish,  not  Weudish  any  more.  —  The  actual  Inhabitants  of 
Uraudenburg,  therefore,  are  either  come  of  Dutch  Ijog-farm- 
ers,  or  are  simple  Lower  Saxons  ("Anglo-Saxon,"  if  you  like 
tluit  better),  Piatt- I'eiitsch  of  the  common  type  ;  an  unexcep- 
tionable breed  of  people.  Streaks  of  Wendish  population, 
extruded  gradually  into  the  remoter  quagmires,  and  more 
inaccessible,  less  valuable  sedgy  moors  and  sea-strands,  are 
scattered  about ;  Mecklenburg,  which  still  subsists  separately 
after  a  sort,  is  reckoned  peculiarly  Wendish.  In  Mecklenburg, 
romnu'rn,  rommerellen  (Little  Pomerania),  are  still  to  be 
seen  physiognomies  of  a  Wendish  or  Vandalic  type  (more  of 
cheek  than  there  ought  to  be,  and  less  of  brow  ;  otherwise 
good  enough  physiognomies  of  their  kind) :  but  the  general 
mass,  tempered  with  such  admixtures,  is  of  the  Platt-Deutsch, 
Saxon  or  even  Anglish  character  we  are  familiar  with  liere  at 
lK>me.  A  i)atient  stout  peoi)le ;  meaning  considerable  things, 
ami  very  incapable  of  speaking  what  it  means. 

Albert  was  a  fine  tall  figure  himself ;  der  Schune,  "  Albert 
the  Handsome,"  Avas  his  name  as  often  as  ''Albert  the  Bear." 
That  latter  epithet  he  got,  not  from  his  looks  or  qualities,  but 
merely  from  his  heraldic  cognizance :  a  Bear  on  his  shield. 
As  was  then  the  mode  of  names ;  surnames  being  scant,  and 
not  yet  fixedly  in  existence.  Thus  too  his  contemporaries, 
Henry  the  Lion  of  Saxony  and  Welfdom,  William  the  Lion  of 
Scotland,  were  not,  either  of  them,  specially  leonine  men :  nor 
had  the  Plantagenets,  or  Geoffrey  of  Anjou,  any  connection 
with  the  Plant  of  Broom^  except  wearing  a  twig  of  it  in  their 
caps  on  occasion.  Men  are  glad  to  get  some  designation  for  a 
grand  Albert  they  are  often  speaking  of,  which  shall  distin- 
guish him  from  the  many  small  ones.  Albert  "  the  Bear,  der 
Bdr,^'  will  do  as  well  as  another. 

It  was  this  one  first  that  made  Brandenburg  peaceable  and 
notable.  We  might  call  him  the  second  founder  of  Branden- 
burg ;  he,  in  the  middle  of  the  Twelfth  Century,  completed 
for  it  what  Henry  the  Fowler  had  begun  early  in  the  Tenth. 
After  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  barking  and  worrying, 
the  Wends  are  now  finally  reduced  to  silence ;  their  anarchy 


80  JJKANDENIiUKi;   AND  IKJllENZULLEKNS.        15'«'k  ll. 

1170. 

well  Imiied,  and  wholesome  Dutch  cabbage  planted  over  it : 
Alb(n-t  did  several  great  things  in  the  world  ;  but  this,  for 
jKisterity,  remains  his  memorable  teat.  Not  done  quite  easily; 
but  done  :  big  destinies  of  Nations  or  of  I'ersons  are  not 
founded  r/mtis  in  this  world.  He  had  a  sore  toilsome  time 
of  it,  coercing,  warring,  managing  among  his  fellow-creatures, 
while  his  day's-work  histcd,  —  tiity  years  or  so,  for  it  began 
early.  He  died  in  his  Ciistle  of  iJallenstiidt,  peaceably  among 
the  Hartz  Mountains  at  last,  in  the  year  1170,  age  about  sixty- 
iive.  It  was  in  the  time  while  Thonuis  u  Becket  wiuj  roving 
about  the  world,  coming  home  excommunicative,  and  finally 
getting  killed  in  Canterbury  Cathedral;  —  while  Abbot  iSamson, 
still  a  poor  little  brown  lioy,  came  ovi-r  from  Norfolk,  holding 
by  his  mother's  hand,  to  St.  Edmundsbury ;  having  seen  "  Su- 
iauitji  with  outsjji-ead  wings  "  fearfully  busy  In  this  world. 


CHAPTEU    V. 

COXKAl)    OK    lionF.NZOLLKU.V  ;    ANO    KAISKIi    UAKBAKOSSA. 

It  w;is  in  those  same  years  that  a  stout  young  fellow,  Con- 
rad by  name,  far  off  in  the  southern  parts  of  Germany,  set  out 
from  the  old  Castle  of  Hohenzollern,  where  he  waa  but  junior, 
and  had  small  outlooks,  upon  a  very  great  errand  in  the  world. 
From  Hohenzollern  ;  bound  now  towards  Gelnhausen,  Kaisers- 
lautern,  or  whatever  temiwrary  lodging  the  great  Kaiser  13ar- 
barossa  might  be  known  to  have,  who  was  a  wandering  man, 
his  business  lying  everywhere  over  half  the  world,  and  need- 
ing the  master's  eye.  Conrad's  purpose  is  to  find  Barbarossa, 
and  seek  fortune  under  him. 

This  is  a  very  indisputable  event  of  those  same  years.  The 
exact  date,  the  figure,  circumstances  of  it  were,  most  likely, 
never  written  anywhere  but  on  Conrad's  own  brain,  and  are 
now  rubbed  out  forevermore ;  but  the  event  itself  is  certain ; 
and  of  the  highest  concernment  to  this  Narrative.    Somewhere 


Ci.Ai.  V.  CUNUAD   UF    IIUIIENZULLEKN.  81 

1170. 

about  the  year  1170,  likeliest  a  few  years  before  that/  this 
Couracl,  riding  down  from  Hoheiizollern,  probably  with  uo 
great  stock  of  luggage  about  hiui,  —  little  dreams  of  being 
connected  with  Brandenburg  on  the  other  side  of  the  world  ; 
but  w  unconsciously  more  so  than  any  other  of  the  then  sons 
of  Adam.  He  is  the  lineal  ancestor,  twentieth  in  direct  as- 
cent, of  the  little  Boy  now  sleeping  in  his  cradle  at  Berlin ;  let 
him  wait  till  nineteen  generations,  valiantly  like  Conrad,  have 
done  their  part,  and  gone  out,  Conrad  will  find  he  is  come  to 
this  S»  A  nuin's  destiny  is  strange  always  ;  and  never  wants 
for  miracles,  or  will  want,  though  it  sometimes  may  for  eyes 
to  discern  them. 

lloheuzollern  lies  far  south  in  Schwaben  (Suabia),  on  the 
sunward  slope  of  the  Kauhe-Alp  Country ;  no  great  way  north 
from  Constance  and  its  Lake  ;  but  well  aloft,  near  the  springs 
of  the  Danube ;  its  back  leaning  on  the  Black  Forest ;  it  is  per- 
haps definable  as  the  southern  summit  of  that  same  huge  old 
llercynian  Wood,  which  is  still  called  the  Sihicarxicald  (Black 
Forest),  though  now  comparatively  bare  of  trees.*^  Fanciful 
Dryasdust,  doing  a  little  etymology,  will  tell  you  the  name 
Zollern  is  e(]uivalent  to  ToUery  or  I'laee  of  Tolls.  Whereby 
JlohenzoUcni  comes  to  mean  the  Hi>jli  or  Upi)er  ToUeri/  ;  — 
and  gives  one  the  notion  of  anticpie  pedlers  climbing  pain- 
fully, out  of  Italy  and  the  Swiss  valleys,  thus  far ;  unstraj)- 
j)ing  their  pack-horses  here,  and  chaffering  in  unknown  dialect 
about  toll.  Poor  souls  ;  —  it  may  be  so,  but  we  do  not  know, 
nor  shall  it  concern  us.  This  only  is  known  :  That  a  human 
kindred,   probably   of  some  talent  for  coercing  anarchy  and 

1  Rentsch,  Brandenhurgischer  Ceder-IIein  (Baircuth,  1682),  pp.  273-276. — 
See  also  Johaun  Ulrich  Pregitzern,  Teutschn-  Rer/ierunfjs-  und  Ehren-Spiegd, 
vorbildend  ij-c.  des  IJaitses  Hohenzollern  (Berlin,  1703),  pp.  90-93.  A  learned 
and  painful  Book  :  by  a  Tiibingen  Professor,  who  is  deeply  read  in  the  old 
Histories,  and  gives  Portraits  and  other  Engravings  of  some  value. 

-  "  There  are  still  considerable  spottings  of  wood  {pine  mainly,  and  '  black ' 
enough);  Holz-handd  (timber-trade)  still  a  considerable  branch  of  business 
there:  —  and  on  the  streams  of  the  country  are  cunning  contrivances  notice- 
able, for  floating  down  the  article  into  the  Xeckar  river,  and  thence  into  the 
Riiine  and  to  IIolLand."  (  Tourist's  Note.) 
VOL.  v. 


82  BKANDENIiUKO  AND  llOHENZOLLEliXS.       B.k>k  II. 

1170. 

guiding  inaiikiiKl,  had,  centuries  ago,  built  its  Jhirg  there,  and 

done  that  function  in  a  small  but  creditable  way  ever  since ; 

kindred  possibly  enough  derivable  from  "  Thassilo,"  Charle- 
magne, King  Dagobert,  and  other  Kings,  but  certainly  from 
Adam  and  the  iUmighty  Maker,  who  had  given  it  those  quali- 
ties; —  and  that  Conrad,  a  junior  member  of  the  same,  now 
goes  forth  from  it  in  the  way  we  see.  "  Why  should  a  young 
fellow  that  has  capabilities,"  thought  Conrad,  "  stay  at  home 
in  hungry  idleness,  with  no  estate  but  his  javelin  and  buff 
jerkin,  and  no  employment  but  his  hawks,  when  there  is  a 
wide  opulent  world  waiting  only  to  be  conquered  ?  "  This  was 
Conrad's  thought;  and  it  proved  to  be  a  very  just  one. 

It  was  now  the  tlower-time  of  the  Romish  Kaisership  of 
Germany  ;  about  the  middle  or  noon  of  liarbarossa  himself, 
second  of  the  Ilohenstauffens,  and  greatest  of  all  the  Kaisers 
of  that  or  any  other  house.  Kaiser  fallen  unintelligible  to 
most  modern  readers,  and  wholly  unknown,  which  is  a  pity. 
No  King  so  furnished  out  with  apparatus  and  arena,  with 
personal  faculty  to  rule  and  scene  to  do  it  in,  has  a})j)eared 
elsewhere.  A  magnificent  magnanimous  man ;  holding  the 
reins  of  the  world,  not  (piite  in  the  imaginary  sense  ;  scourg- 
ing anarchy  down,  and  urging  noble  effort  up,  really  on  a 
grand  scal^.  A  terror  to  evil-doers  and  a  praise  to  well-doers 
in  this  world,  probably  beyond  what  was  ever  seen  since. 
Whom  also  we  salute  across  the  centuries,  as  a  choice  Benefi- 
cence of  Heaven.  "Encamped  on  the  Plain  of  Roncaglia 
[when  he  entered  Italy,  as  he  too  often  had  occasion  to  do], 
liis  shield  was  hung  out  on  a  high  mast  over  his  tent ;  "  and 
it  meant  in  those  old  days,  "  Ho,  every  one  that  has  suffered 
wrong ;  here  is  a  Kaiser  come  to  judge  you,  as  he  shall  answer 
it  to  his  Master."  And  men  gathered  round  him;  and  actually 
found  some  justice,  —  if  they  could  discern  it  when  found. 
Which  they  could  not  always  do ;  neither  was  the  justice 
capable  of  being  perfect  always.  A  fearfully  difficult  func- 
tion, that  of  Friedrich  Eedbeard.  But  an  inexorably  indis- 
pensable one  in  this  world;  —  though  sometimes  dispensed 
with  (to  the  huge  joy  of  Anarchy,  which  sings  Hallelujah 
through  all  its  Newspapers)  for  a  season ! 


Chap.  V.  CONKAD   OF   IIOIIEXZOLLERN.  83 

1170. 

Kaiser  Friedrich  had  immense  difficulties  with  his  Popes, 
with  his  Milanese,  and  the  like  ;  —  besieged  Milan  six  times 
over,  among  other  anarchies ;  —  had  indeed  a  heavy-laden  hard 
time  of  it,  his  task  being  great  and  the  greatest.  He  nuulo 
Gebhardus,  the  anarchic  Governor  of  Milan,  "  lie  chained  un- 
der liis  table,  like  a  dog,  for  three  days."  For  the  man  was 
in  earnest,  in  that  earnest  time: — and  let  us  say,  they  are 
l)ut  paltry  sham-men  who  are  not  so,  in  any  time  ;  paltry,  and 
far  worse  than  paltry,  however  high  their  plumes  may  be.  Of 
whom'  the  sick  world  (Anarchy,  both  vocal  and  silent,  having 
now  swoln  rather  high)  is  everywhere  getting  weary.  —  Geb- 
hardus, the  anarchic  Governor,  lay  tliree  days  under  the  Kai- 
ser's table  ;  as  it  would  be  well  if  every  anarchic  Governor, 
of  the  soft  type  and  of  the  hard,  were  made  to  do  on  occasion ; 
asking  himself,  in  terrible  earnest,  "  Am  I  a  dog,  then ;  alas, 
am  not  I  a  dog  ?  "     Those  were  serious  old  times. 

On  the  other  hand,  Kaiser  Friedrich  had  his  Tourneys,  his 
gleams  of  briglit  joyances  now  and  then  ;  one  great  gathering 
of  all  the  chivalries  at  Mainz,  which  lasted  for  three  weeks 
long,  the  grandest  Tourney  ever  seen  in  this  world.  Geln- 
hausen,  in  the  Wetterau  (ruin  still  worth  seeing,  on  its  Island 
in  the  Kinzig  river),  is  understood  to  have  been  one  of  his 
Houses  ;  Kaiserslautern  (Kaiser's  Limpid,  from  its  clear  spring- 
water)  in  the  Pfalz  (what  we  call  Palatinate),  another.  He 
went  on  the  Crusade  in  his  seventieth  year ;  ^  thinking  to  him- 
self, "  Let  us  end  with  one  clear  act  of  piety  :  "  —  he  cut  his 
way  through  the  dangerous  Greek  attorneyisms,  through  the 
hungry  mountain  passes,  furious  Turk  fanaticisms,  like  a  gray 
old  hero  :  "  Woe  is  me,  my  son  has  perished,  then  ?  "  said  he 
once,  tears  wetting  the  beard  now  white  enough  ;  "  My  son 
is  slain  !  —  But  Christ  still  lives  ;  let  us  on,  my  men  !  "  And 
gained  great  victories,  and  even  found  his  son  ;  but  never  re- 
turned home  ;  —  died,  some  unknown  sudden  death,  "  in  the 
river  Cydnus,"  say  the  most.^    Nay  German  Tradition  thinks 

^  1189,  A.D.  ;  Saladin  having,  to  the  universal  sorrow,  taken  .Jerusalem. 

-  Kohler  (p.  188),  and  the  Authorities  cited  by  hira.  Biinau's  Deutsche 
Kaiser-  und  Reichs-llistorle  (Leipzig,  1728-174.3),  i.,  is  the  express  Book  of 
Barbarossa  :  an  elaborate,  instructive  Volume. 


84  BRANDENBURG  AND  llUllENZULLERN.S.       «»ok  II. 

1170. 

he  is  not  yet  dead ;  but  only  sleeping,  till  the  bad  world  reach 
its  worst,  when  he  will  reappear.  He  sits  within  the  Hill  near 
Salzburg  yonder,  —  says  German  Tradition,  its  fancy  kindled 
by  the  strange  noises  in  that  Hill  (limestone  Hill)  from  hid- 
den waters,  and  by  the  grand  rocky  look  of  the  place :  —  A 
peasant  once,  stumbling  into  the  interior,  saw  the  Kaiser  in 
his  stone  cavern ;  Kaiser  sat  at  a  marble  table,  leaning  on  his 
elbow  ;  winking,  only  half  asleep  ;  beard  had  grown  through 
the  table,  and  streamed  out  on  the  floor ;  he  looked  at  the 
peasant  one  moment ;  asked  him  something  about  tlie  time  it 
was  ;  then  dropped  his  eyelids  again  :  Not  yet  time,  but  will 
be  soon  !  ^  He  is  winking  as  if  to  awake.  To  awake,  and  set 
liis  shield  aloft  by  the  Koncalic  Fields  again,  with  :  Ho,  every 
one  that  is  suffering  wrong ;  —  or  that  has  strayed  guideless, 
devil-ward,  and  done  wrong,  which  is  far  fataler ! 

Conrad  has  become  Burgnraf  of  Niirnberr/  (a.d.  1170). 

This  was  the  Kaiser  to  whom  Conrad  addressed  himself ; 
and  he  did  it  with  success  ;  which  may  be  taken  as  a  kind  of 
testimonial  to  the  worth  of  the  young  man.  Details  we  have 
absolutely  none  :  but  tliere  is  no  doubt  that  Conrad  recom- 
mended himself  to  Kaiser  Redbeard,  nor  any  that  the  Kaiser 
was  a  judge  of  men.  Very  earnest  to  discern  men's  worth 
and  capabilities;  having  unspeakable  need  of  worth,  instead 
of  unworth,  in  those  under  him !  We  may  conclude  he  had 
found  capabilities  in  Conrad ;  found  that  the  young  fellow  did 
effective  services  as  the  occasion  rose,  and  knew  how  to  work, 
in  a  swift,  resolute,  judicious  and  exact  manner.  Promotion 
was  not  likely  on  other  terms  ;  still  less,  high  promotion. 

One  thing  farther  is  known,  significant  for  his  successes  : 
Conrad  found  favor  with  "the  Heiress  of  the  Vohburg  Fam- 
ily," desirable  young  heiress,  and  got  her  to  wife.  The  Voh- 
burg Family,  now  much  forgotten  everywhere,  and  never  heard 
of  in  England  before,  had  long  been  of  supreme  importance, 
of  immense  possessions,   and  opulent   in   territories,  and  we 

1  Kiesebeck's  Travels  (English  Translation,  London,  1787),  i.  140.  Biisch- 
ing,  Volks-Sagen,  &c.  (Leipzig,  1820),  i.  3.33,  &c.  &c. 


CHA1-.  V.  KAISER  BAKBAROSSA.  85 

1170. 

need  not  add,  in  honors  and  offices,  in  those  Franconian  N urn- 
berg  regions  ;  and  was  now  gone  to  this  one  girl.  I  knoAv  not 
that  she  had  much  inheritance  after  all ;  the  vast  Vohburg 
properties  lapsing  all  to  the  Kaiser,  when  the  male  heirs  were 
out.  But  she  had  pretensions,  tacit  claims ;  in  particular,  the 
Vohburgs  had  long  been  habitual  or  in  effect  hereditary  Burg- 
grafs  of  Nuruberg ;  and  if  Conrad  had  the  talent  for  that 
office,  lie  now,  in  preference  to  others,  might  have  a  chance  for 
it.  Sure  enough,  he  got  it ;  took  root  in  it,  he  and  his  ;  and, 
in  the  'course  of  centuries,  branched  up  from  it,  high  and 
wide,  over  the  adjoining  countries  ;  waxing  towards  still  higher 
destinies.  That  is  the  epitome  of  Conrad's  history ;  history 
now  become  very  great,  but  then  no  l)igger  than  its  neighbors, 
and  very  meagrely  recorded  ;  of  which  the  reflective  reader  is 
to  make  what  he  can. 

There  is  nothing  clearly  known  of  Conrad  more  than  these 
three  facts  :  That  he  was  a  cadet  of  Ilohenzollern  (whose 
father's  name,  and  some  forefathers'  names  are  definitely 
known  in  the  family  archives,  but  do  not  concern  us) ;  that 
he  married  the  Heiress  of  the  Vohburgs,  whose  history  is 
on  record  in  like  manner;  and  that  he  was  appointed  Burg- 
graf  of  Niirnberg,  year  not  precisely  known,  —  but  before 
1170,  as  would  seem.  ''In  a  Reichstag  (Diet  of  the  Empire) 
held  at  Regensburg  in  or  about  1170."  he  formally  complains, 
he  and  certain  others,  all  stanch  Kaiser's  friends  (for  in  fact 
it  was  with  the  Kaiser's  knoAvledge,  or  at  his  instigation), 
of  Henry  the  Lion's  high  procedures  and  malpractices ;  of 
Henry's  League  with  the  Pope,  League  with  the  King  of 
Denmark,  and  so  forth  ;  the  said  Henry  having  indeed  fallen 
into  opposition,  to  a  dangerous  degree  ;  —  and  signs  himself 
Burggraf  of  Nurnberg,  say  the  old  Chronicles.^  The  old  Docu- 
ment itself  has  long  since  perished,  I  conclude  :  but  the  Chron- 
icles may  be  accepted  as  reporters  of  so  conspicuous  a  thing ; 
which  was  the  beginning  of  long  strife  in  Germany,  and 
proved  the  ruin  of  Henry  the  Lion,  supreme  Welf  grown 
over-big,  —  and  cost  our  English  Henry  II.,  whose  daugh- 
ter he  had  married,  a  world  of  trouble  and  expense,  we  may 

^  Rentsch,  p.  276  (who  cites  Acentinus,  Triltheim,  &c.). 


86  IJUANDEXDUKG  AND  IIUIIENZOLLERXS.      Book  II. 

1170. 

remark  withal.  Conrad  therefore  is  already  Burggraf  of  N  Urn- 
berg,  and  a  man  of  mark,  in  1170  :  and  his  marriage,  still  more 
his  first  sally  from  the  paternal  Castle  to  seek  his  fortune, 
must  all  be  dated  earlier. 

More  is  not  known  of  Conrad ;  except  indeed  that  ho  did 
not  j)erish  in  Barbarossa's  grand  final  Crusade.  For  the  an- 
tiquaries have  again  found  him  sigm'd  tt)  some  contract,  or 
otherwise  insignificant  document,  a.d.  iL'oo.  Which  is  proof 
jtositive  that  he  did  not  die  in  the  Crusadi' ;  and  proof  i)roba- 
ble  that  ho  was  not  of  it,  —  few,  hardly  any,  of  those  stalwart 
150,000  champions  of  the  Cross  having  ever  got  home  again. 
Conrad,  by  this  time,  might  have  sons  come  to  age ;  fitter  for 
ai-ms  and  fatigues  than  he :  and  indeed  at  Niirnberg,  in 
Deutschland  generally,  as  Official  Prince  of  the  Empire,  and 
man  of  weight  and  judgment,  Conrad's  services  might  be  still 
more  useful,  and  tlie  Kaiser's  interests  might  ret^uire  him  rather 
to  stay  at  home  in  that  juncture.  Burggi-af  of  Nurnberg  he 
continued  to  be  ;  he  and  his  descendants,  first  in  a  selective, 
then  at  length  in  a  directly  hereditary  way,  century  after  cen- 
tury ;  and  so  long  as  that  office  lasted  in  Niirnberg  (which  it 
did  there  much  longer  than  in  other  Imperial  Free-Cities),  a 
Conirs  de  Zaire  of  Conrad's  producing  was  always  the  man 
thenceforth. 

Their  acts,  in  that  station  and  capacity,  as  Burggraves  and 
Princes  of  the  Empire,  were  once  conspicuous  enough  in  Ger- 
man History  ;  and  indeed  are  only  so  dim  now,  because  the 
History  itself  is,  and  was  always,  dim  to  us  on  this  side  of  the 
sea.  They  did  strenuous  work  in  their  day  ;  and  occasionally 
towered  up  (though  little  driven  by  the  poor  wish  of  "tower- 
ing," or  "  shining "  without  need)  into  the  high  places  of 
Public  History.  They  rest  now  from  their  labors,  Conrad 
and  his  successors,  in  long  series,  in  the  old  Monastery  of 
Heilsbronn  (between  Xiirnberg  and  Anspach),  with  Tombs  to 
many  of  them,  which  were  very  legible  for  slight  Biographic 
purposes  in  my  poor  friend  Bentsch's  time,  a  hundred  and 
fifty  years  ago ;  and  may  perhaps  still  have  some  quasi-use, 
as  "sepulchral  brasses,"  to  another  class  of  persons.  One  or 
two  of  those  old  buried  Figures,  more  peculiarly  important 


Chai-.  V.  KAISER   BAKBAROSSA.  87 

1170. 

for  our  little  Friend  now  sleeping  in  his  cradle  yonder,  we 
must  endeavor,  as  the  Narrative  proceeds,  to  resuscitate  a 
little  and  render  visible  for  moments. 


Of  the  Hohenzollern  Burggraves  generally. 

As  to  the  Office,  it  was  more  important  than  perhaps  the 
reader  imagines.  We  already  saw  Conrad  first  Burggraf, 
among  the  magnates  of  the  country,  denouncing  Henry  the 
Lion.  Every  Burggraf  of  Niirnberg  is,  in  virtue  of  his  office, 
"Prince  of  the  Empire:  "  if  a  man  happened  to  have  talent 
of  his  own,  and  solid  resources  of  his  own  (which  arc  always 
on  tlie  growing  hand  with  this  family),  here  is  a  basis  from 
which  he  may  go  far  enough.  Burggraf  of  Niirnberg :  that 
means  again  Gr<tf  (judge,  defender,  manager,  ff  reeve)  of  the 
Kaiser's  Burg  or  Castle,  —  in  a  word  Kaiser's  Representative 
and  Alter  Ego,  —  in  the  old  Imperial  Free-Town  of  Niirnberg ; 
witli  much  adjacent  very  complex  territory,  also,  to  administer 
for  the  Kaiser.  A  flourishing  extensive  City,  this  old  Niirn- 
berg, with  valuable  adjacent  territory,  civic  and  imperial,  intri- 
cately intermixed ;  full  of  commercial  industries,  opulences, 
not  without  democratic  tendencies.  Nay  it  is  almost,  in  some 
senses,  the  London  and  Middlesex  of  the  Germany  that  then 
was,  if  we  will  consider  it ! 

This  is  a  place  to  give  a  man  chances,  and  try  what  stuff  is 
in  liim.  The  office  involves  a  talent  for  governing,  as  well  as 
for  judging;  talent  for  fighting  also,  in  cases  of  extremity, 
and  what  is  still  better,  a  talent  for  avoiding  to  fight.  None 
but  a  man  of  competent  superior  parts  can  do  that  function ; 
I  suppose,  no  imbecile  could  have  existed  many  months  in  it, 
in  the  old  earnest  times.  Conrad  and  his  succeeding  Hohen- 
zollerns  proved  very  capable  to  do  it,  as  would  seem ;  and 
grew  and  spread  in  it,  waxing  bigger  and  bigger,  from  their 
first  planting  there  by  Kaiser  Barbarossa,  a  successful  jiidge 
of  men.  And  ever  since  that  time,  from  "  about  the  year 
1170,"  down  to  the  year  1815,  — when  so  much  was  changed, 
owing  to  another  (temporary)  "  Kaiser  "  of  new  type.  Napo- 
leon his   name, — the   Hohenzollerns   have  had   a  footing  in 


88  BRANDENBURG   AND   IIOIIENZOLLERNS.     B^k^k  II. 

1170. 

Frankenland ;  and  done  sovereignty  in  and  round  Nurnberf^, 
witli  an  enlarging  Territory  in  that  region.  Territory  at  last 
of  large  compass  ;  which,  under  the  names  Margrafdom  of 
Anspach,  and  of  Ikiircuth,  or  in  general  Margrafdom  of  Culm- 
Oach,  Avhich  includes  both,  has  become  familiar  in  History. 

For  tiie  House  went  on  steadily  increasing,  as  it  were,  from 
the  first  day ;  the  Hohenzollerns  being  always  of  a  growing, 
gaining  nature ;  —  as  men  are  that  live  conformably  to  the 
laws  of  this  Universe,  and  of  their  place  therein  ;  which,  as 
will  appear  from  good  study  of  thtir  old  records,  though  idle 
runior,  gi'ounded  on  no  study,  sometimes  says  the  contrary, 
these  Hohenzollerns  eminently  were.  A  thrifty,  steadfixst, 
diligent,  clear-sighted,  stout-hearted  line  of  men ;  of  loyal 
nature  withal,  and  even  to  be  called  just  and  pious,  sometimes 
to  a  notable  degree.  Men  not  given  to  fighting,  where  it  could 
be  avoided ;  yet  with  a  good  swift  stroke  in  them,  where  it 
could  not :  princel)'  people  after  their  sort,  with  a  high,  not 
an  ostentatious  turn  of  mind.  They,  for  most  part,  go  upon 
solid  prudence ;  if  possible,  are  anxious  to  reach  the  goal  with- 
out treading  on  any  one ;  are  peaceable,  as  I  often  say,  and 
by  no  means  quarrelsome,  in  aspect  and  demeanor;  yet  there 
is  generally  in  the  Hohenzollerns  a  very  fierce  flash  of  anger, 
capable  of  blazing  out  in  cases  of  urgency :  this  latter  also  is 
one  of  the  most  constant  features  I  have  noted  in  the  long 
series  of  them.  That  they  grew  in  Frankenland,  year  after 
year,  and  century  after  centur}^,  while  it  was  their  fortune  to 
last,  alive  and  active  there,  is  no  miracle,  on  such  terms. 

Their  old  big  Castle  of  Plassenburg  (now  a  Penitentiary, 
with  treadmill  and  the  other  furnishings)  still  stands  on  its 
Height,  near  Culmbach,  looking  down  over  the  pleasant  meet- 
ing of  the  Eed  and  White  j\Iayn  Rivera  and  of  their  fruitful 
valleys ;  awakening  many  thoughts  in  the  traveller.  Anspach 
Schloss,  and  still  more  Baireuth  Schloss  (INIansion,  one  day,  of 
our  little  Wilhelmina  of  Berlin,  Fritzkin's  sister,  now  prattling 
there  in  so  old  a  way ;  where  notabilities  have  been,  one  and 
another ;  which  Jean  Paul,  too,  saw  daily  in  his  walks,  while 
alive  and  looking  skyward)  :  these,  and  many  other  castles 


Chap.  VI.  THE  TEUTONIC  ORDER.  89 

ll'JO. 

and  things,  belonging  now  wholly  to  Bavaria,  will  continue 
memorable  for  Hohenzollern  history. 

The  Family  did  its  due  share,  sometimes  an  excessive  one, 
in  religious  beneticences  and  foundations  ;  which  was  not  quite 
left  off  in  recent  times,  though  much  altering  its  figure, 
Erlangen  University,  for  example,  was  of  Wilhelmina's  doing. 
Erlangen  University;  —  and  also  an  Opera-House  of  excessive 
size  in  Baireuth.  Such  was  poor  Wilhelmina's  sad  figure  of 
''  religion."  In  the  old  days,  their  largest  bequest  that  I  recol- 
lect was  to  the  Teutsche  Bitter,  Order  of  Teutonic  Knights, 
very  celebrated  in  those  days.  Junior  branches  from  Hohen- 
zollern, as  from  other  families,  sought  a  career  in  that  chival- 
rous devout  Brotherhood  now  and  then ;  one  pious  Burggraf 
had  three  sons  at  once  in  it ;  he,  a  very  bequeathing  Herr 
otherwise,  settled  one  of  his  mansions,  Virnsperg,  with  rents 
and  incomings,  on  the  Order.  Which  accordingly  had  thence- 
forth a  Comthurei  (Commandery)  in  that  country;  Comthuvei 
of  Virnsperg  the  name  of  it :  the  date  of  donation  is  a.d.  1294 ; 
and  two  of  the  old  Herr's  three  Ritter  sons,  we  can  remark, 
Avere  successively  Comthurs  (Commanders,  steward-prefects) 
of  Virnsperg,  the  first  two  it  had.^ 

This  was  in  1294;  the  palmy  period,  or  culmination  time  of 
the  Tentsches  Eitterthum.  Concerning  which,  on  wider  ac- 
counts, we  must  now  say  a  word. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    TEUTSCH    RITTERS    OR   TEUTONIC    ORDER. 

Barbarossa's  Army  of  Crusaders  did  not  come  home  again, 
any  more  than  Barbarossa.  They  were  stronger  than  Turk  or 
Saracen,  but  not  than  Hunger  and  Disease ;  Leaders  did  not 
know  then,  as  our  little  Friend  at  Berlin  came  to  know,  that 
"an  Army,  like  a  serpent,  goes  upon  its  belly P  After  fine 
fighting  and  considerable  victories,  the  end  of  this  Crusade 
1  Kentsch,  p.  288. 


90  BRANDENBURG  AND  HOIIENZOLLERNS.       Book  If. 

1 11)0. 

was,  it  took  to  "  besieging  Acre,"  and  in  reality  lay  perishing 
as  of  niuvrain  on  the  beach  at  Acre,  without  shelter,  without 
medicine,  without  food.  Not  even  Kiehard  C<Bur-de-Lion,  and 
his  best  prowess  and  help,  could  avert  such  issue  from  it. 

Richard's  Crusade  fell  in  with  the  fag-end  of  Barbarossa's ; 
and  it  was  Richard  chiefly  that  managed  to  take  Acre;  —  at 
least  so  Richard  flattered  himself,  when  he  pulled  poor  Leopold 
of  Austria's  standard  from  the  towers,  and  trailed  it  through 
the  gutters  :  "  Your  standard  ?  You  have  taken  Acre  ?  " 
"Which  turned  out  ill  for  Richard  afterwards.  And  Duke 
Leopold  has  a  bad  name  among  us  in  consequence ;  much  worse 
than  he  deserves.  Leopold  had  stuff  in  him  too.  He  died, 
for  example,  in  this  manner:  falling  with  his  horse,  I  think 
in  some  siege  or  other,  he  had  got  his  leg-  hurt ;  which  hin- 
dered him  in  fighting.  Leg  could  not  be  cured :  **  Cut  it  off, 
then  !  "  said  Leopold.  This  also  the  leech  could  not  do ;  durst 
not,  and  would  not ;  so  that  Leopold  was  come  quite  to  a  halt. 
Leopold  ordered  out  two  squires ;  put  his  thigh  upon  a  block, 
the  sharp  edge  of  an  axe  at  the  right  point  across  his  thigh  : 
"  Squire  first,  hold  you  that  axe  ;  steady  !  Squire  second, 
smite  you  on  it  with  forge-hammer,  with  all  your  strength, 
heavy  enough  !  "  Squire  second  struck,  heavy  enough,  and 
the  leg  flew  off ;  but  Leopold  took  inflammation,  died  in  a  day 
or  two,  as  the  leech  had  predicted.  That  is  a  fact  to  be  found 
in  current  authors  (quite  exact  or  not  quite),  that  surgical 
operation  :  ^  such  a  man  cannot  have  his  flag  trailed  through 
the  gutters  by  any  CcEur-de-Lion.  —  But  we  return  to  the  beach 
at  Acre,  and  the  poor  Crusaders,  dying  as  of  murrain  there. 
It  is  the  year  1190,  Acre  not  yet  taken,  nor  these  quarrels  got 
to  a  height. 

"The  very  Templars,  Hospitallers,  neglect  us,"  murmured 
the  dying  Germans ;  "  they  have  perhaps  enough  to  do,  and 
more  than  enough,  with  their  own  countrymen,  whose  speech 
is  intelligible  to  them  ?  For  us,  it  would  appear,  there  is  no 
help  ! "  Not  altogether  none.  A  company  of  pious  souls  — 
compassionate  Liibeck  ship-captains  diligently  forwarding  it, 
and  one  Walpot  von  Bassenheim,  a  citizen  of  Bremen,  taking 
1  Mentzel,  Geschichte  der  Deutscken  (Stuttgard  and  Tubingen,  1837),  p.  309. 


CiiAi-.  VI.  THE   TEUTONIC   ORDER.  91 

1210-39. 

the  lead  —  formed  themselves  into  a  uuiou  for  succor  of  the 
sick  and  dying ;  "  set  up  canvas  tents,"  medicinal  assuage- 
ments, from  the  Liibeck  ship-stores ;  and  did  what  utmost  was 
in  them,  silently  in  the  name  of  Mercy  and  Heaven.  "  This 
Walpot  was  not  by  birth  a  nobleman,"  says  one  of  the  old 
Chroniclers,  "but  his  deeds  were  noble."  This  pious  little 
union  proved  unconsciously  the  beginning  of  a  great  thing. 
Finding  its  work  prosper  here,  and  gain  favor,  the  little  union 
took  yows  on  itself,  strict  chivalry  forms,  and  decided  to 
become  permanent.  "  Knights  Hospitallers  of  our  dear  Lady 
of  Mount  Zion,"  that  or  something  equivalent  was  their  first 
title,  under  Walpot  their  first  Grand-Master ;  which  soon  grew 
to  be  "German  Order  of  St.  Mary"  {Tentsche  Hitter  of  the 
Marie-Onlen),  or  for  shortness  Teutsvhes  Ritterthum ;  under 
which  name  it  })layed  a  great  part  in  the  world  for  above  three 
centuries  to  come,  and  eclipsed  in  importance  both  the  Tem- 
plars autl  Hospitallers  of  St.  John. 

This  was  the  era  of  Chiralry  Orders,  and  Geliihde  ;  time  for 
Bodies  of  Men  uniting  themselves  by  a  Sacred  Vow,  "  Ge- 
lilbde;^^  —  which  word  and  thing  have  passed  over  to  us  in 
a  singularly  dwindled  condition :  "  Club  "  we  now  call  it ;  and 
the  vow,  if  sacred,  does  not  aim  very  high !  Templars  and 
Hospitallers  were  already  famous  bodies ;  the  latter  now  almost 
a  century  old.  Wal pot's  new  Geluhde  was  of  similar  intent, 
only  German  in  kind,  —  the  protection,  defence  and  solacement 
of  Pilgrims,  with  Avhatever  that  might  involve. 

Head  of  Teutsch  Order  moves  to  Venice. 

The  Teutsch  Eitters  earned  character  in  Palestine,  and  began 
to  get  bequests  and  recognition;  but  did  not  long  continue 
there,  like  their  two  rival  Orders.  It  was  not  in  Palestine, 
whether  the  Orders  might  be  aware  of  it  or  not,  that  their 
work  could  now  lie.  Pious  Pilgrims  certainly  there  still  are 
in  great  numbers ;  to  these  you  shall  do  the  sacred  rites :  but 
these,  under  a  Saladin  bound  by  his  word,  need  little  protec- 
tion by  the  sword.  And  as  for  Crusading  in  the  armed  fash- 
ion, that  has  fallen  visibly  into  the  decline.     After  Barbarossa, 


92    BRANDENBURG  AND  IIUHENZULLERNS.   B.;ok  II. 

12JU-3d. 

Coeur-de-Lion  and  Philippe  Auguste  have  tried  it  with  siicli 
failure,  what  wise  man  will  be  in  haste  to  try  it  again  ?  Zeal- 
ous Popes  continue  to  stir  up  Crusades  ;  but  the  Secular  Powers 
are  not  in  earnest  as  formerly  ;  Secular  Powers,  when  they 
do  go,  "take  Constantinople,"  "conquer  Sicily,"  never  take 
or  conquer  anything  in  Palestine.  The  Teutsch  Order  helps 
valiantly  in  Palestine,  or  would  help ;  but  what  is  the  use 
of  helping?  The  Teutsch  Order  has  already  possessions  in 
Europe,  by  pious  bequest  and  othenvise ;  all  its  main  interests 
lie  there ;  in  fine,  after  less  than  thirty  years,  Hermann  von 
der  Salza,  a  new  sagacious  Teutschmeister  or  Hochmeister  (so 
they  call  the  head  of  the  Order),  fourth  in  the  series,  a  far- 
seeing,  negotiating  man,  finds  that  Venice  will  be  a  fitter  place 
of  lodging  for  him  than  Acre  :  and  accordingly  ^during  his  long 
Mastership  (a.d.  1210-1239),  he  is  mostly  to  be  found  there, 
and  not  at  Acre  or  Jerusalem. 

He  is  very  great  with  the  busy  Kaiser,  Friedrich  II.,  Barba- 
rossa's  grandson ;  who  has  the  usual  quarrels  with  the  Pope, 
and  is  glad  of  such  a  negotiator,  statesman  as  well  as  armed 
monk.  The  usual  quarrels  this  great  Kaiser  had,  all  along, 
and  some  unusual.  Normans  ousted  from  Sicily,  who  used  to 
be  so  Papal :  a  Kaiser  not  gone  on  the  Crusade,  as  he  had 
vowed;  Kaiser  at  last  suspected  of  freethinking  even:  —  in 
which  matters  Hermann  much  serves  the  Kaiser.  Sometimes 
he  is  appointed  arbiter  between  the  Pope  and  Kaiser ;  —  does 
not  give  it  in  the  Kaiser's  favor,  but  against  him,  where  he 
thinks  the  Kaiser  is  wrong.  He  is  reckoned  the  first  great 
Hochmeister,  this  Hermann  von  der  Salza,  a  Thuringer  by 
birth,  who  is  fourth  in  the  series  of  Masters :  perhaps  the 
greatest  to  be  found  there  at  all,  though  many  were  consider- 
able. It  is  evident  that  no  man  of  his  time  was  busier  in 
important  public  affairs,  or  with  better  acceptance,  than  Her- 
mann. His  Order,  both  Pope  and  Emperor  so  favoring  the 
Master  of  it,  was  in  a  vigorous  state  of  growth  all  this  while  ; 
Hermann  well  proving  that  he  could  help  it  better  at  Venice 
than  at  Acre. 

But  if  the  Crusades  are  ended,  —  as  indeed  it  turned  out, 
only  one  other  worth  speaking  of,  St.  Louis's,  having  in  earnest 


CHAP.  VI.  THE   TEUTONIC   ORDER.  93 

come  to  effect,  or  rather  to  miserable  non-effect,  and  that  not 
yet  for  fifty  years ;  —  if  the  Crusades  are  ended,  and  the 
Teutsch  Order  increases  always  in  possessions,  and  finds  less 
and  less  work,  what  probably  will  become  of  the  Teutsch 
Order  ?  Grow  fat,  become  luxurious,  incredulous,  dissolute, 
insolent;  aud  need  to  be  burnt  out  of  the  way?  That  was 
the  course  of  the  Templars,  and  their  sad  end.  They  began 
poorest  of  the  poor,  "  two  Knights  to  one  Horse,"  as  their  beal 
bore ;  and  they  at  last  took  jive  on  very  opposite  accounts. 
"  To  <5arouse  like  a  Templar : "  that  had  become  a  proverb 
among  men ;  that  was  the  way  to  produce  combustion,  "  spon- 
taneous "  or  other !  Whereas  their  fellow  Hospitallers  of  St. 
John,  chancing  upon  new  work  (Anti-Turk  garrison-duty,  so 
we  may  call  it,  successively  in  Cyprus,  Rhodes,  Malta,  for  a 
series  of  ages),  aud  doing  it  well,  managed  to  escape  the  like. 
As  did  the  Teutsch  Order  in  a  still  more  conspicuous  manner. 

/.  Teutsch  Order  itself  goes  to  Preussen. 

Ever  since  St.  Adalbert  fell  massacred  in  Prussia,  stamping 
himself  as  a  Crucifix  on  that  Heathen  soil,  there  have  been 
attempts  at  conversion  going  on  by  the  Christian  neighbors, 
Dukes  of  Poland  and  others :  intermittent  fits  of  fighting  and 
*  preaching  for  the  last  two  hundred  years,  with  extremely  small 
result.  Body  of  St.  Adalbert  was  got  at  light  weight,  and  the 
poor  man  canonized ;  there  is  even  a  Titular  Bishop  of  Prussia ; 
and  pilgrimages  wander  to  the  Shrine  of  Adalbert  in  Poland, 
reminding  you  of  Prussia  in  a  tragic  manner ;  but  what  avails 
it  ?  Missionaries,  when  they  set  foot  in  the  country,  are  killed 
or  flung  out  again.  The  Bishop  of  Prussia  is  titular  merely  ; 
lives  in  Liefland  {Livonia)  properly  Bishop  of  Riga,  among  the 
Bremen  trading-settlers  and  converted  Lieflanders  there,  which 
is  the  only  safe  place,  —  if  even  that  were  safe  without  aid  of 
armed  men,  such  as  he  has  there  even  now.  He  keeps  his 
Schivertbmder  (Brothers  of  the  Sword),  a  small  Order  of 
Knights,  recently  got  up  by  him,  for  express  behoof  of  Liefland 
itself;  and  these,  fighting  their  best,  are  sometimes  trouble- 
some to  the  Bishop,  and  do  not  much  prosper  upon  Heathen- 


94  BRANDENBURG  AND  HOHENZOLLERNS.       Book  ll. 

122a 

dom,  or  gain  popularity  and  resources  in  the  Christian  world. 
No  hope  in  the  Schwertbmdcr  for  Prussia ;  —  and  in  massacred 
Missionaries  what  hope  ?  The  Prussian  population  continues 
Heathen,  iintauiable  to  Gospel  and  Law ;  and  after  two  centu- 
ries of  eii'ort,  little  or  no  real  progress  has  been  made. 

But  now,  in  these  circumstances,  in  the  year  1226,  the  Titu- 
lar Bishop  of  Prussia,  having  well  considered  the  matter  and 
arranged  it  with  the  Polish  Authorities,  opens  a  communica- 
tion with  Hermann  von  der  Salza,  at  Venice,  on  the  subject ; 
"Crusading  is  over  in  the  E;i.st,  illustrious  Hocluueister ;  no 
duty  for  a  Teutsch  Order  there  at  i)rescnt :  what  is  the  use  of 
crus^iLig  far  off  in  the  East,  when  Heathenism  and  the  King- 
dom of  Satan  hangs  on  our  own  l)()rdcrs,  close  at  hand,  in  the 
North?  Let  the  Teutsch  Order  come  to  Prtnissen ;  head  a 
Crusade  there.  The  land  is  fruitfid  ;  ilows  really  with  milk 
and  honey,  not.  to  s^wak  of  amber,  and  w;us  once  called  the 
Terrestrial  FaradUc'^  —  by  1  forget  whom.*  In  fact,  it  is 
cleai',  the  land  should  belong  to  Christ ;  and  if  the  Christian 
Teutsch  liitterdom  could  conquer  it  from  8at:inas  for  them- 
selves, it  wouhl  be  well  for  all  jmrties.  Hermann,  a  man  of  sa- 
gacious clear  head,  listens  attentively.  The  notion  is  perhaps 
not  quite  new  to  him :  at  all  events,  he  takes  up  the  notion  ;  ne- 
gotiates upon  it,  with  Titular  Bishop,  with  I'ope,  Kaiser,  Duke 
of  Poland,  Teutsch  Order;  and  in  brief,  about  two  years  after- 
wards (a.l).  1228),  having  done  the  negotiatings  to  the  last 
item,  he  produces  his  actual  Teutsch  Ritters,  ready,  on  Prus- 
sian ground. 

Year  1228,  thinks  Dryasdust,  after  a  struggle.  Place  where, 
proves  also  at  length  discoverable  in  Di-y;isdust,  —  not  too  far 
across  the  north  Polish  frontier,  always  with  "  Masovia  "  (the 
now  Warsaw  region)  to  fall  back  upon.  But  in  what  number  ; 
how;  nay  almost  when,  to  a  year,  —  do  not  ask  poor  Dryas- 
dust, who  overwhelms  himself  with  idle  details,  and  by  reason 
of  the  trees  is  unable  to  see  the  Avood.'^ — The  Teutsch  Eitters 
straightway  build  a  Biirg  for  headquarters,  spread  themselves 
on  this  hand  and  that;  and  begin  their  great  task.     Li  the 

1  Voigt  (if  he  had  an  Index !)  knows. 
»  Voijrt  ii-  1"    184,  192. 


Chap.  VI.  THE  TEUTONIC  ORDER.  95 

1228. 

name  of  Heaven,  we  may  still  say  in  a  true  sense  ;  as  they, 
every  Ritter  of  them  to  the  heart,  felt  it  to  be  in  all  manner 
of  senses. 

The  Prussians  were  a  fierce  fighting  people,  fanatically  Anti- 
Christian  :  the  Teutsch  Ritters  had  a  perilous  never-resting  time 
of  it,  especially  for  the  first  fifty  years.  They  built  and  burnt 
innumerable  stockades  for  and  against ;  built  wooden  Forts 
which  are  now  stone  Towns.  They  fought  much  and  preva- 
lently ;  galloped  desperately  to  and  fro,  ever  on  the  alert.  In 
peaceabler  ulterior  times,  they  fenced  in  the  Nogat  and  the 
"Weichsel  with  dams,  whereby  unlimited  quagmire  might  become 
grassy  meadow,  —  as  it  continues  to  this  day.  Mai'ienburg 
(Mart/^s  Burg),  still  a  town  of  importance  in  that  same  grassy 
region,  with  its  grand  stone  Schloss  still  visible  and  even  habi- 
table ;  this  was  at  length  their  Headquarter.  But  how  many 
Burgs  of  wood  and  stone  they  built,  in  different  parts ;  what 
revolts,  surprisals,  furious  fights  in  woody  boggy  places,  they 
had,  no  man  has  counted.  Their  life,  read  in  Dryasdust's 
newest  chaotic  Books  (which  are  of  endless  length,  among 
otlier  ill  qualities),  is  like  a  dim  nightmare  of  unintelligible 
marching  and  fighting:  one  feels  as  if  the  mere  amount  of 
galloping  they  had  would  have  carried  the  Order  several  times 
round  the  Globe.  What  multiple  of  the  Equator  was  it,  then, 
0  Dryasdust  ?  The  Herr  Professor,  little  studious  of  abridg- 
ment, does  not  say. 

But  always  some  preaching,  by  zealous  monks,  accompanied 
the  chivalrous  fighting.  And  colonists  came  in  from  Germany ; 
trickling  in,  or  at  times  streaming.  Victorious  Ritterdom 
offers  terms  to  the  beaten  Heathen ;  terms  not  of  tolerant 
nature,  but  which  will  be  punctually  kept  by  Ritterdom. 
When  the  flame  of  revolt  or  general  conspiracy  burnt  up  again 
too  extensively,  there  was  a  new  Crusade  proclaimed  in  Ger- 
many and  Christendom  ;  and  the  Hochmeister,  at  Marburg  or 
elsewhere,  and  all  his  marshals  and  ministers  were  busy,  — 
generally  with  effect.  High  personages  came  on  crusade  to 
them.  Ottocar  King  of  Bohemia,  Duke  of  Austria  and  much 
else,  the  great  man  of  his  day,  came  once  (a.d.  1255)  ;  Johann 
King  of  Bohemia,  in  the  next  century,  once  and  again.     The 


1)6  BRANDENBUKG  AND  HOHENZOLLEllNS.       Bo.^k  II. 

mighty  Ottocar/  with  his  extensive  far-shining  chivalry,  '•'con- 
quered Sanihmd  in  a  month ; "  tore  up  the  Roniova  wliere 
Adalbert  had  been  massacred,  and  burnt  it  from  the  face  of 
the  Earth.  A  certain  Fortress  was  founded  at  that  time,  in 
Ottocar's  presence  ;  and  in  honor  of  him  they  named  it  Klng\ 
Foiiress,  "  Konigsberg : "  it  is  now  grown  a  big-domed  metro- 
politan City,  —  where  we  of  this  Narrative  lately  saw  a  Coro- 
nation going  on,  and  Sophie  Charlotte  furtively  taking  a  pinch 
of  snutf.  Among  King  Ottocar's  esquires  or  subaltern  junior 
officials  on  this  occasion,  is  one  Rudolf,  heir  of  a  poor  Swiss 
Lordship  and  gray  Hill-Castle,  called  Ilapshurfj,  rather  in 
reduced  circumstances,  whom  Ottocar  likes  for  his  prudent 
hardy  ways ;  a  stout,  modest,  wise  young  man,  —  who  may 
chance  to  redeem  Hapsburg  a  little,  if  he  live  ?  How  the 
shuttles  fly,  and  the  life-threads,  always,  in  this  "loud-roaring 
Loom  of  Time  I  "  — 

Along  with  Ottocar  too,  as  an  ally  in  the  Crusade,  was 
Otto  III.  Ascanier  Markgraf  and  Elector  of  Brandenburg, 
great-grandson  of  Albert  the  Bear  ;  —  name  Otto  the  Pious  in 
consequence.  He  too  founded  a  Town  in  Prussia,  on  this  occa- 
sion, and  called  it  Brandenburg ;  which  is  still  extant  there, 
a  small  Brandenburg  the  Second ;  for  these  procedures  he  is 
called  Otto  the  Pious  in  History.  His  Wife,  withal,  was  a 
sister  of  Ottocar's  ;  '^  —  which,  except  in  the  way  of  domestic 
felicity,  did  not  in  the  end  amount  to  much  for  him ;  this 
Ottocar  having  flown  too  high,  and  melted  his  wings  at  the 
sun,  in  a  sad  way,  as  we  shall  see  elsewhere. 

None  of  the  Orders  rose  so  high  as  the  Teutonic  in  favor 
witli  mankind.  It  had  by  degrees  landed  possessions  far  and 
wide  over  Germany  and  beyond :  I  know  not  how  many  dozens 
of  Ballei/s  (rich  Bailliwicks,  each  again  with  its  dozens  of 
Comthureis,  Commanderies,  or  subordinate  groups  of  estates), 
and  Baillies  and  Commanders  to  match ;  —  and  was  thought  to 
deserve  favor  from  above.  Valiant  servants,  these  ;  to  whom 
Heaven  had  vouchsafed  great  labors  and  unspeakable  bless- 
ings. In  some  fifty  or  fifty -three  years  they  had  got  Prussian 
1  Yoigt,  iii.  80-87.  ^  Michaelis,  i.  270;  Hiibuer,  t.  174. 


Chap.  VI.  THE    TEUTONIC    ORDER.  97 

1^228. 

Heathenism  brought  to  the  ground ;  and  they  endeavored  to 
tie  it  well  down  there  by  bargain  and  arrangement.  IJut  it 
would  not  yet  lie  quiet,  nor  for  a  century  to  come ;  being  still 
secretly  Heathen ;  revolting,  conspiring  ever  again,  ever  on 
weaker  terms,  till  the  Satanic  element  had  burnt  itself  out, 
and  conversion  and  composura  could  ensue. 

Conversion  and  complete  conquest  once  come,  there  was  a 
happy  time  for  Prussia :  ploughshare  instead  of  sword  ;  busy 
sea-havens,  German  towns,  getting  built;  churches  everywhere 
rising ;  grass  growing,  and  j^eaceable  cows,  where  formerly  had 
been  quagmire  and  snakes.  And  for  the  Order  a  happy  time  ? 
A  rich,  not  a  happy.  The  Order  was  victorious ;  Livonian 
"  Sword-Urothers,"  "  Knights  of  Dobryn,"  minor  Orders  and 
Authorities  all  round,  were  long  since  subordinated  to  it  or 
incorporated  with  it ;  Livonia,  Courland,  Lithuania,  are  all  got 
tamed  under  its  influence,  or  tied  down  and  evidently  tamable. 
But  it  was  in  these  times  that  the  Order  got  into  its  wider 
troubles  outward  and  inward  ;  quarrels,  jealousies,  with  Chris- 
tian neighbors,  Poland,  Pommern,  who  did  not  love  it  and  for 
cause ;  —  wider  troubles,  and  by  no  means  so  evidently  useful 
to  mankind.  The  Order's  wages,  in  this  world,  flowed  higher 
than  ever,  only  perhaps  its  work  was  beginning  to  run  low ! 
But  we  will  not  anticipate. 

On  the  whole,  this  Teutsch  Eitterdom,  for  the  first  century 
and  more,  was  a  grand  phenomenon  ;  and  flamed  like  a  bright 
blessed  beacon  through  the  night  of  things,  in  those  Northern 
Countries.  For  above  a  century,  we  perceive,  it  was  the  rally- 
ing place  of  all  brave  men  avIio  had  a  career  to  seek  on  terms 
other  than  vulgar.  The  noble  soul,  aiming  beyond  money,  and 
sensible  to  more  than  hungei^  in  this  world,  had  a  beacon  burn- 
ing (as  we  say),  if  the  night  chanced  to  overtake  it,  and  the 
earth  to  grow  too  intricate,  as  is  not  uncommon.  Better  than 
the  career  of  stump-oratory,  I  should  fancy,  and  its  Hesperides 
Apples,  golden  and  of  gilt  horse-dung.  Better  than  puddling 
away  one's  poor  spiritual  gift  of  God  {loan,  not  gift),  such 
as  it  may  be,  in  building  the  lofty  rhyme,  the  lofty  Keview- 
Article,  for  a  discerning  public  that  has  sixpence  to  spare ! 
Times  alter  greatly.  —  Will  the  reader  take  a  glimpse  of  Con- 

VOL.    V.  7 


98  BRANDENBURG  AND  HOHENZOLLERNS.       Book  If. 

1232. 

rad  von  Thiiringen's  biography,  as  a  sample  of  the  old  ways 
of  proceeding  ?  Conrad  succeeded  Hermann  von  der  Salza 
as  Grand-Master,  and  his  history  is  memorable  as  a  Teutonic 

Knight. 

TJie  atuff  Teutsch  Hitters  were  made  of.     Conrad  of  TJiil- 
ringen  :  Saint  Elizabeth;   Town  of  Marburg. 

Conrad,  younger  brother  of  the  Landgraf  of  Thiiringen,  — 
which  Prince  lived  chiefly  in  the  Wartburg,  romantic  old  Hill- 
Castle,  now  a  Weimar-Eisenach  property  and  show-place,  then 
an  abode  of  very  earnest  people, — was  probably  a  child-in- 
arms, in  that  same  Wartburg,  while  Richard  Coeur-de-Lion  was 
getting  home  from  Palestine  and  into  troubles  by  the  road : 
this  will  date  Conrad  for  us.  His  worthy  elder  brother  was 
Husband  of  the  lady  since  called  Saint  Elizabeth,  a  very  pious 
but  also  very  fanciful  young  woman  ;  —  and  I  always  guess  his 
going  on  the  Crusatle,  where  he  died  straightway,  was  partly 
the  fruit  of  the  life  she  led  him  ;  lodging  beggars,  sometimes 
in  his  very  bed,  continually  breaking  his  night's  rest  for  prayer, 
and  devotional  exercise  of  undue  length ;  "  weeping  one  mo- 
ment, then  smiling  in  joy  the  next ; "  meandering  about,  capri- 
cious, melodious,  weak,  at  the  will  of  devout  whim  mainly ! 
However,  that  does  not  concern  us.^  Sure  enough  her  poor 
Landgraf  went  crusading,  Year  1227  (Kaiser  Friedrich  II.'s 
Crusade,  who  could  not  put  it  off  longer) ;  poor  Landgraf  fell 
ill  by  the  road,  at  Brindisi,  and  died,  —  not  to  be  driven  farther 
by  any  cause. 

Conrad,  left  guardian  to  his  deceased  P>rother's  children,  had 
at  first  much  quarrel  with  Saint  Elizabeth,  though  he  after- 
wards took  far  other  thoughts.  Meanwhile  he  had  his  own 
apanage,  "  Landgraf  "  by  rank  he  too ;  and  had  troubles  enough 
with  that  of   itself.     For  instance :  once  the  Archbishop  of 

1  Many  Lives  of  the  Saint.  See,  in  particular,  Lihellus  de  Dictis  Qiiatucrr 
ArtcUlarnm,  &c. —  (that  is,  Report  of  the  evidence  got  from  Elizabeth's  Four 
Maids,  by  an  Oificial  Person,  Devil's-Advocate  or  whatever  he  was,  missioned 
by  the  Pope  to  question  them,  when  her  Canonization  came  to  be  talked  of. 
A  curious  piece):  —  in  Menckenii  Scrij)tores  Ri-rum  Germauicarum  (Lipsiae, 
1728-1730),  ii.  dd. ;  where  also  are  other  details. 


Chap.  VI.  CONRAD  OF  THURINGEN.  99 

12;{2. 

Mainz,  being  in  debt,  laid  a  heavy  tax  on  all  Abbeys  under 
him ;  on  Reichartsbronn,  an  Abbey  of  Conrad's,  among  others. 
"  Don't  pay  it ! "  said  Conrad  to  the  Abbot.  Abbot  refused 
accordingly ;  but  was  put  under  ban  by  the  Pope ;  —  obliged  to 
comply,  and  even  to  be  '' whipt  thrice  "  before  the  money  could 
be  accepted.  Two  whippings  at  Erfurt,  from  the  Archbishop, 
there  had  been ;  and  a  third  was  just  going  on  there,  one  morn- 
ing, Avhen  Conrad,  travelling  that  way,  accidentally  stept  in  to 
matins.  Conrad  flames  into  a  blazing  whirlwind  at  the  pheno- 
menon disclosed.  "  Whip  my  Abbot  ?  And  he  is  to  pay,  then, 
—  Archbishop  of  Beelzebub  ?  " —  and  took  the  poor  Archbishop 
by  the  rochets,  and  spun  him  hither  and  thither  ;  nay  was  for 
cutting  him  in  two,  had  not  friends  hysterically  busied  them- 
selves, and  got  the  sword  detained  in  its  scabbard  and  the 
Archbishop  away.     Here  is  a  tine  coil  like  to  be,  for  Conrad. 

Another  soon  follows ;  from  a  quarrel  he  had  with  Fritzlar, 
an  Imperial  Free-Town  in  those  parts,  perhaps  a  little  stiff 
upon  its  privileges,  and  high  towards  a  Landgraf.  Conrad 
marches,  one  morning  (Year  1232),  upon  insolent  Fritzlar  ; 
burns  the  environs ;  but  on  looking  practically  at  the  ramparts 
of  the  place,  thinks  they  are  too  high,  and  turns  to  go  home 
again.  Whereupon  the  idle  women  of  Fritzlar,  who  are  upon 
the  ramparts  gazing  in  fear  and  hope,  burst  into  shrill  universal 
jubilation  of  voice,  —  and  even  into  gestures,  and  liberties  with 
their  dress,  which  are  not  describable  in  History !  Conrad, 
suddenly  once  more  all  flame,  whirls  round ;  storms  the  ram- 
parts, slays  what  he  meets,  plunders  Fritzlar  with  a  will,  and 
leaves  it  blazing  in  a  general  fire,  which  had  broken  out  in  the 
business.  Here  is  a  pair  of  coils  for  Conrad ;  the  like  of  which 
can  issue  only  in  Papal  ban  or  worse. 

Conrad  is  grim  and  obstinate  under  these  aspects ;  but 
secretly  feels  himself  very  wicked ;  knows  not  well  what  will 
come  of  it.  Sauntering  one  day  in  his  outer  courts,  he  notices 
a  certain  female  beggar  ;  necessitous  female  of  loose  life,  who 
tremulously  solicits  charity  of  him.  Necessitous  female  gets 
some  fraction  of  coin,  but  along  with  it  bullying  rebuke  in 
very  liberal  measure  ;  and  goes  away  weeping  bitterly,  and 
murmuring  about  "want  that  drove  me   to  those  courses." 


lUO        BUANDENBUKG  AND  llUlIEXZOLLERNS.        Hook  if. 

Conrad  retires  into  himself:  "Wliat  is  her  void  sin,  porhiqis, 
tu  mine  ?  "  Conrad  "  lies  awake  all  that  night ;  "  mopes  about, 
in  intricate  darkness,  days  and  nights ;  rises  one  morning  an 
altered  man.  lie  makes '' [tilgrimage  to  Gladhaeh,"  barefoot  ; 
kneels  down  at  the  churclwloor  of  Fritzlar  with  bare  back,  and 
a  bundle  of  rods  beside  him.  "  Whip  me,  good  injured  Chris- 
tians, for  the  love  of  Jesus !  "  —  in  brief,  reconciles  himself 
to  Christian  mankind,  the  Tope  includetl ;  takes  the  Teutsch- 
Kitter  vows  upon  him  ; '  and  hastens  off  to  Preussen,  there  to 
spend  himself,  life  and  life's  resources  thenceforth,  faithfully, 
till  he  die.  The  one  course  left  for  Conrad.  Which  he  follows 
with  a  great  strong  step,  —  with  a  thought  still  audible  to  me. 
It  was  of  such  stuff  that  Teutsch  Kitters  were  then  made ; 
Ritters  evidently  capable  of  something. 

Saint  Elizabeth,  who  went  to  live  at  Marburg,  in  Hessen- 
Cassel,  after  her  Husband's  death,  and  soon  died  there,  in  a 
most  melodiously  pious  sort,'^  made  the  Teutsch  Order  guar- 
dian of  her  Son.  It  was  from  her  and  the  Grand-Mastership 
of  Connul  that  ^larburg  became  such  a  metropolis  of  the 
Order ;  the  Grand-Masters  often  residing  there,  many  of 
them  coNeting  burial  there,  and  much  business  bearing  date 
of  the  place.  A  place  still  notable  to  the  ingenuous  Tourist, 
who  knows  his  whereabout.  I'hilip  the  Magnanimous,  Lu- 
ther's friend,  memorable  to  some  as  Philip  with  the  Two 
"Wives,  lived  there,  in  that  old  Castle,  —  which  is  now  a  kind 
of  Correction-House  and  Garrison,  idle  blue  uniforms  stroll- 
ing about,  and  unlovely  physiognomies  with  a  jingle  of  ii(;n 
at  their  ankles, — where  Luther  has  debated  with  the  Zwin- 
gliau  Sacramenters  and  others,  and  much  has  happened  in  its 
time.  Saint  Elizabeth  and  her  miracles  (considerable,  surely, 
of  their  kind)  were  the  first  origin  of  ^Marburg  as  a  Town  :  a 
mere  Castle,  with  adjoining  Hamlet,  before  that. 

Strange  gray  old  silent  Town,  rich  in  so  many  memories ; 
it  stands  there,  straggling  up  its  rocky  hill-edge,  towards  its 
old  Castles  and  edifices  on  the  top,  in  a  not  unpicturesque 
manner;  flanked  by  the  river  Lahn  and  its  fertile  plains  : 

1  A.D.  1234  (Vuigt,  ii.  375-423).  2  ^.p.  1031  ;  age  24. 


Chap.  VI.  CONllAD   OF   TllURINGEN.  101 

12J4. 

very  sili'iit,  except  for  the  deliriuus  screech,  at  rare  intervals, 
of  a  railway  train  passing  that  way  from  Frankfurt-on-.Mayu 
to  Cassel.  "Church  of  St.  Elizabeth,"  —  high,  grand  Church, 
-built  by  Conrad  our  Hochmeister,  in  reverence  of  his  once 
terrestrial  Sister-in-law,  —  stands  conspicuous  in  the  plain  be- 
low, where  the  Town  is  just  ending.  St.  Elizabeth's  Shrine 
■was  once  there,  and  pilgrims  wending  to  it  from  all  lands. 
Conrad  himself  is  buried  there,  as  are  many  Hochmeisters ; 
thair  names,  and  shields  of  arms,  Hermann's  foremost,  though 
Hermann's  dust  is  not  there,  are  carved,  carefully  kept 
legible,  on  the  shafts  of  the  Gothic  arches,  —  from  floor  to 
groin,  long  rows  of  them  ;  —  and  produce,  with  the  other 
tombs,  tomb-paintings  by  Diirer  and  the  like,  thoughts  im- 
pressive almost  to  pain.  St.  Elizabeth's  loculus  was  put  into 
its  shrine  here,  by  Kaiser  Friedrich  II.  and  ali  manner  of 
princes  and  grandees  of  the  Empire,  "  one  million  two  hundred 
thousand  people  looking  on,"  say  the  old  records,  perhaps  not 
quite  exact  in  their  arithmetic.  Philip  the  Magnanimous, 
wishing  to  stop  "  pilgrimages  no-whither,"  buried  the  loculus 
away,  it  was  never  known  where  ;  under  the  floor  of  that 
Church  somewhere,  as  is  likeliest.  Enough  now  of  Marburg, 
and  of  its  Teutsch  Hitters  too. 

They  had  one  or  two  memorable  Hochmeisters  and 
Teutschmeisters ;  whom  we  have  not  named  here,  nor  shall.* 
There  is  one  Hochmeister,  somewhere  about  the  fiftieth  on 
the  list,  and  properly  the  last  real  Hochmeister,  Albert  of 
Hohenzollern-Culmbach  by  name,  who  will  be  very  m.emora- 
ble  to  us  by  and  by. 

Or  will  the  reader  care  to  know  how  Culmbach  came 
into  the  possession  of  the  HohenzoUerns,  Burggraves  of 
Nuruberg  ?  The  story  may  be  illustrative,  and  will  not  occupy 
us  long. 

^  In  our  excellent  Kohler's  Miintzhelustigupgpn  (Xiirnberg,  1729  ct  seqq. 
ii.  382  ;  v  102  ;  \\n.  380;  &c.)  are  valuable  glimpse.-*  into  the  Teutonic  Order, 
—  as  into  hundreds  of  other  things.  The  special  Book  upon  it  is  Voigt's, 
often  cited  here :  Nine  heavy  Volumes  ;  grounded  on  faithful  reading,  but 
with  a  fatal  defect 'of  almost  every  other  quality. 


102        BKANDENliUKG   AND  liUllENZOLLEKXS.       ^5^^"^  H- 

12'*8. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

MARGRAVIATE   OF    CULMBACII  :    BAIREUTH,    AXSPACH. 

In  the  Year  1248,  in  his  Castle  of  Plassenburg,  —  which 
is  now  a  Correction-House,  looking  down  upon  the  junction 
of  the  Red  and  White  Mayn,  —  Otto  Duke  of  Meran,  a  very- 
great  potentate,  more  like  a  King  than  a  Duke,  was  suddenly 
clutched  hold  of  by  a  certain  wedded  gentleman,  name  not 
given,  "  one  of  his  domestics  or  dependents,"  whom  he  had 
enraged  beyond  forgiveness  (signally  violating  the  Seventh 
Commandment  at  his  expense) ;  and  was  by  the  said  wedded 
gentleman  there  and  then  cut  down,  and  done  to  death. 
"  Lamentably  killed,  juinmerru-h  ersfochen,'^  says  old  Rentsch.^ 
Others  give  a  different  color  to  the  homicide,  and  even  a  dif- 
ferent place ;  a  controversy  not  interesting  to  us.  Slain  at 
any  rate  he  is ;  still  a  young  man ;  the  last  male  of  his  line. 
Whereby  the  renowned  Dukes  of  Meran  fall  extinct,  and  im- 
mense properties  come  to  be  divided  among  connections  and 
claimants. 

Meran,  we  remark,  is  still  a  Town,  old  Castle  now  abol- 
ished, in  the  Tyrol,  towards  the  sources  of  the  Etsch  (called 
Adige  by  Italian  neighbors).  The  Merans  had  been  lords 
not  only  of  most  of  the  Tyrol ;  but  Dukes  of  "  the  Yoigt- 
land  ;  "  —  Yoigtland,  that  is  BaiUie-land,  Avide  country  between 
Kiirnberg  and  the  Fichtelwald ;  why  specially  so  called,  Dry- 
asdust dimly  explains,  deducing  it  from  certain  Counts  von 
Reuss,  those  strange  Reusses  who  always  call  themselves 
Henrij,  and  now  amount  to  Henry  the  Eightieth  and  Odd,  with 
sid«-branches  likewise  called  Henry;  whose  nomenclature  is 
the  despair  of  mankind,  and  worse  than  that  of  the  Naples 
Lazzaroni  who  candidly  have  no  names  !  —  Dukes  of  Yoigt- 

1  P.  293.  Kohler,  Reichs-Hislorie,  p.  245.  Holle,  Alte  Gesddchte  dor  Stadt 
Beui-euth  (Baireuth,  1833),  pp.  34-3". 


^l\y-  ^^I-  BAIKEUTH,   AXSPACH.  103 

laud,  I  say ;  likewise  of  Dalmatia ;  then  also  Markgraves  of 
Austria ;  also  Counts  of  Andechs,  in  which  latter  fine  couutiy 
(north  of  Munchen  a  day's  ride),  and  not  at  Plassenburg, 
some  say,  the  man  was  slain.  These  immense  possessions, 
which  now  (a.d.  1248)  all  fall  asunder  by  the  stroke  of  that 
sword,  come  to  be  divided  among  the  slain  man's  connections, 
or  to  be  snatched  up  by  active  neighbors,  and  otherwise  dis- 
posed of. 

Active  Wurzburg,  active  Bamberg,  without  much  connection, 
snatched  up  a  good  deal :  Count  of  Orlamiinde,  married  to  the 
eldest  Sister  of  the  slain  Duke,  got  Plassenburg  and  most  of 
the  Voigtland :  a  Tyrolese  magnate,  whose  Wife  was  an  Aunt 
of  the  Duke's,  laid  hold  of  the  Tyrol,  and  transmitted  it  to 
daughters  and  their  spouses,  —  the  finish  of  wliich  line  Ave  shall 
see  by  and  by :  —  in  short,  there  was  much  property  in  a  dis- 
posable condition.  The  HohenzoUern  lUirggraf  of  Niirnberg, 
Avho  had  married  a  younger  Sister  of  the  Duke's  two  years 
before  this  accident,  managed  to  get  at  least  Balreuth  and 
some  adjacencies ;  big  Orlamiinde,  who  had  not  much  better 
right,  taking  the  lion's  share.  This  of  Baireuth  proved  a 
notable  possession  to  the  HohenzoUern  family  :  it  was  Conrad 
the  first  Burggraf's  great-grandson,  Friedrich,  counted  "  Fried- 
rich  III."  among  the  Burggraves,  who  made  the  acquisition  in 
this  manner,  a.d.  1248. 

Onolzbach  (On'z-bach  or  "-brook,"  now  called  Anspach)  they 
got,  some  fourscore  yea,rs  after,  by  purchase  and  hard  money 
down  ("  24,000  pounds  of  farthings,"  whatever  that  may  be),^ 
which  proved  a  notable  twin  possession  of  the  family.  And 
then,  in  some  seven  years  more  (a.d.  1338),  the  big  Orlamiinde 
people,  having  at  length,  as  was  too  usual,  fallen  considerably 
insolvent,  sold  Plassenburg  Castle  itself,  the  Plassenburg  with 
its  Town  of  Culmbach  and  dependencies,  to  the  HohenzoUern 
Burggraves,^  who  had  always  ready  money  about  them.  Who 
in  this  way  got  most  of  the  Voigtland,  with  a  fine  Fortress, 
into  hand ;  and  had,  independently  of  Xiirnberg  and  its  Im- 
perial properties,  an  important  Princely  Territory  of  their  own. 

i  A.D.  13.31  :  Stadt  Anspach,  by  J.  B.  Fischer  (Anspach,  1786),  p.  196. 
2  Eentsch,  p.  157. 


lUl        BRANDENBURG  AND  HOHENZOLLEIINS.       Book  II. 

Margraviate  or  Principality  of  Culnihach  (Plasseiiburg  being 
only  the  Castle)  was  the  general  title ;  but  more  frequently 
in  later  times,  being  oftenest  s]»lit  in  two  between  brothers  un- 
acquainted with  primogeniture,  there  were  two  Margraviates 
made  of  it :  one  of  Baireuth,  called  also  "  Margraviate  On 
the  Hill;"  and  one  of  Anspach,  ''Margraviate  Under  the 
Hill :  "  of  which,  in  their  modern  designations,  we  shall  by  and 
by  hear  more  than  enough. 

Thus  are  the  Hohenzollern  growing,  and  never  declining: 
by  these  few  instances  judge  of  many.  Of  their  hard  labors, 
and  the  storms  they  had  to  keep  under  control,  we  could  also 
say  something :  How  the  two  young  Sons  of  the  Burggraf  once 
riding  out  with  their  Tutor,  a  big  hound  of  theirs  in  one  of  the 
streets  of  jS^urnberg  accidentall}  tore  a  child ;  and  there  arose 
wild  mother's-wail ;  and  "all  the  Scythe-smiths  turned  out," 
fire-breathing,  deaf  to  a  poor  Tutor's  pleadings  and  exjilain- 
ings ;  and  how  the  Tutor,  who  had  ridden  forth  in  calm  humor 
with  two  Princes,  came  galloping  home  with  only  one,  —  tlie 
Smiths  having  driven  another  into  boggy  ground,  and  there 
caught  and  killed  him ;  ^  with  the  Burggraf's  commentary  on 
that  sad  proceeding  (the  same  Friedrich  III.  who  had  married 
Meran's  Sister) ;  and  the  amends  exacted  by  him,  strict  and 
severe,  not  passionate  or  inhuman.  Or  again  how  the  Niirn- 
bergers  once,  in  the  Burggraf's  absence,  built  a  ring-wall  round 
his  Castle ;  entrance  and  exit  now  to  depend  on  the  Niirn- 
bergers  withal !  And  how  the  Burggraf  did  not  fly  out  into 
battle  in  consequence,  but  remedied  it  by  imperturbable  coun- 
tenance and  power  of  driving.  With  enough  of  the  like  sort ; 
which  readers  can  conceive. 

Burggraf  Friedrich  HI. ;  and  the  Anarchy  of  Nineteen 

Years. 

This  same  Friedrich  III.,  Great-grandson  of  Conrad  the  first 
Burggraf,  was  he  that  got  the  Burggraviate  made  hereditary 
in  his  family  (a.d.  1273) ;    which  thereby  rose  to  the  fixed 
1  Eeutsch,  p.  306  (Date  not  given;  guess,  about  1270). 


Ci.Ai.  VII.  BURGGRAF   FRIEDRICH   III.  103 

1271. 

rank  of  Princes,  among  other  advantages  it  was  gaining.  Nor 
did  this  accjuisition  come  gratis  at  all,  but  as  the  fruit  of  good 
service  adroitly  done ;  service  of  endless  importance  as  it 
j)roved.  Friedrich's  life  had  fallen  in  times  of  huge  anarchy  ; 
the  Hohenstauffen  line  gone  miserably  out,  —  Boy  Conradin, 
its  last  representative,  perishing  on  the  scaffold  even  (by  a 
desi)erate  Pope  and  a  desperate  Duke  of  Anjou)  ;  ^  Germans, 
Sicilian  Normans,  Pope  and  Reich,  all  at  daggers-drawn 
Avith  one  another;  no  Kaiser,  nay  as  many  as  Three  at  once! 
Which  lasted  from  1254  onwards ;  and  is  called  "  the  Inter- 
regnum," or  Anarchy  '^  of  Nineteen  Years,"  in  German  His- 
tory. 

Let  us  at  least  name  the  Three  Kaisers,  or  Triple-elixir  of 
No-Kaiser ;  though,  except  as  chronological  landmarks,  we 
have  not  much  to  do  with  them.  First  Kaiser  is  William 
Count  of  Holland,  a  rough  fellow.  Pope's  protege,  Pope  even 
raising  cash  for  him ;  till  William  perished  in  the  Dutch  peat- 
bogs (horse  and  man,  furiously  pursuing,  in  some  fight  there, 
and  getting  swallowed  up  in  that  manner) ;  which  happily 
reduces  our  false  Kaisers  to  two :  Second  and  Third,  who  are 
both  foreign  to  Germany. 

Second  Kaiser  is  Alphonso  King  of  Castille,  Alphonso  the 
Wise,  whose  saying  about  Ptolemy's  Astronomy,  "That  it 
seemed  a  crank  machine ;  that  it  was  pity  the  Creator  had  not 
taken  advice  !  "  is  still  remembered  by  mankind ;  —  this  and  no 
other  of  his  many  sayings  and  doings.  He  was  wise  enough 
to  stay  at  home  ;  and  except  wearing  the  title,  which  cost 
nothing,  to  concern  himself  very  little  about  the  Holy  Roman 
Empire,  —  some  clerk  or  two  dating  "  Toleti  (at  Toledo),"  did 
languidly  a  bit  of  official  writing  now  and  then,  and  that  was 
all.  Confused  crank  machine  this  of  the  German  Empire  too, 
your  jM^jesty  ?    Better  stay  at  home,  and  date  ''  Toleti." 

The  Third  false  Kaiser  —  futile  call  him  rather,  wanting 
clear  majority  —  was  the  English  Richard  of  Cornwall ; 
younger  Son  of  John  Lackland;  and  little  wiser  than  his 
Father,  to  judge  b}^  those  symptoms.  He  had  plenty  of  money, 
and  was  liberal  with  it ;  —  no  other  call  to  Germany,  you 
1  At  Naples,  25th  October,  1268. 


1C6   BRANDENBURG  AND  HOHENZOLLERNS.   Bu..k  li. 

1271. 

would  say,  except  to  get  rid  of  his  money ;  in  which  he  suc- 
ceeded. He  lived  actually  in  Germany,  twice  over  for  a  year 
or  two :  —  Alphonso  and  he  were  alike  shy  of  the  Pope,  as 
Um})ire ;  and  Kichard,  so  far  as  his  money  went,  found  some 
gleams  of  authority  and  comfortable  flattery  in  the  Rhenish 
provinces  :  at  length,  in  12G3,  money  and  patience  being  both 
probably  out,  he  quitted  Germany  for  the  second  and  last 
time ;  came  home  to  Berkhamstead  in  Hertfordshire  here,' 
more  fool  than  he  went.  Till  his  death  (a.d.  1271),  he  con- 
tinued to  call  himself,  and  was  by  many  persons  called,  Kaiser 
of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  ;  —  needed  a  German  clerk  or  two 
at  Berkhamstead,  we  can  sui)pose  :  but  never  went  back  ;  pre- 
ferring pleasant  Berkhamstead,  with  troubles  of  Simon  de 
Montfort  or  whatever  troubles  there  might  be,^  to  anything 
Germany  had  to  otfer  him. 

These  were  the  Three  futile  Kaisers :  and  the  lute  Kaiser 
Conrad's  young  Bov,  who  one  day  might  have  swept  the  ground 
clear  of  them,  perished,  —  bright  young  Conradin,  bright  and 
brave,  but  only  sixteen,  and  Rope's  cai)tive  by  ill  luck,  —  per- 
islied  on  the  scaffold  ;  "  throwing  out  his  glove  "  (in  symbolical 
protest)  amid  the  dark  mute  Neapolitan  multitudes,  that  win- 
try morning.  It  was  October  25th,  12G8,  —  Dante  Alighieri 
then  a  little  boy  at  Florence,  not  three  years  old  ;  gazing  with 
strange  eyes  as  the  elders  talked  of  such  a  performance  by 
Christ's  Vicar  on  Earth.  A  very  tragic  performance  indeed, 
which  brought  on  the  Sicilian  Vespers  by  and  by  ;  for  the 
Heavens  never  fail  to  pay  debts,  your  Holiness  !  — 

Germany  was  rocking  down  towards  one  saw  not  what,  — 
an  Anarchic  Republic  of  Princes,  perhaps,  and  of  Free  Barons 
fast  verging  towards  robbery  ?  Sovereignty  of  multiplex 
I*rinces,  with  a  Peerage  of  intermediate  Robber  Barons  ? 
Things  are  verging  that  way.  Such  Princes,  big  arid  little, 
each  wrenching  off  for  himself  what  lay  loosest  and  handiest 
to  him,  found  it  a  stirring  game,  and  not  so  much  amiss.  On 
the  other  hand,  some  voice  of  the  People,  in  feeble  whimper- 
ings of  a  strange  intensity,  to  the  opposite  effect,  are  audible 
to  this  day.  Here  are  Three  old  Minstrels  (Minnesdnger)  picked 
1  Goufih's  Camden,  i.  339. 


Chap.  VII.  BUKGGllAF   FKIEDRICH   III.  107 

1273. 

from  Manesse's  Collection  by  an  obliging  hand,  who  are  of 
this  date,  and  shall  speak  each  a  word  :  — 

No.  1  lo(iiutur  (in  cramp  doggerel,  done  into  speech)  :  "To 
thee,  0  Lord,  we  poor  folk  make  moan ;  the  Devil  has  sown 
his  seeds  in  this  land !  Law  thy  hand  created  for  protection 
of  thy  children  :  but  where  now  is  Law  ?  Widows  and  orphans 
weep  that  the  I'rinces  do  not  unite  to  have  a  Kaiser." 

No.  2  :  "  The  Princes  grind  in  the  Kaiser's  mill :  to  the 
Keich  they  fling  the  siftings  ;  and  keep  to  themselves  the  meal. 
Nof  much  in  haste,  they,  to  give  us  a  Kaiser." 

No.  3:  "Like  tlie  Plague  of  Frogs,  there  they  are  come 
out;  defiling  the  Reich's  honor.  Stork,  when  wilt  thou  ap- 
pear, then,"  and  with  thy  stiiT  mandibles  act  upon  them  a 
little  ?  1 

It  was  in  such  ciroi"imstances,  that  Friedrich  III.,  Burggraf 
of  Niirnberg,  who  had  long  moaned  and  striven  over  these 
woes  of  his  country,  came  to  pay  that  visit,  late  in  the  night 
(1st  or  2(1  of  October,  1273),  to  his  Cousin  Rudolf  Lord  of  Haps- 
biirg,  under  the  walls  of  Basel ;  a  notable  scene  in  History. 
Rudolf  was  besieging  Basel,  being  in  some  feud  with  the 
Bishop  there,  of  which  Friedrich  and  another  had  been  proposed 
as  umpires ;  and  Friedrich  now  waited  on  his  Cousin,  in  this 
hasty  manner,  —  not  about  the  Basel  feud,  but  on  a  far  higher 
quite  unexpected  errand,  —  to  say,  That  he  Rudolf  was  elected 
Kaiser,  and  that  better  times  for  the  Holy  Roman  Empire 
were  now  probable,  with  Heaven's  help.^  We  call  him  Cousin ; 
though  what  the  kindred  actually  was,  a  kindred  by  mothers, 
remains,  except  the  general  fact  of  it,  disputable  by  Dryasdust. 
The  actual  visit,  under  the  walls  of  Basel,  is  by  some  con- 
sidered romantic.  But  that  Rudolf,  tough  steel-gray  man, 
besieging  Basel  on  his  own  quarrel,  on  the  terms  just  stated, 
was  altogether  unexpectedly  apprised  of  this  great  news,  and 
that  Cousin  Friedrich  of  Niirnberg  had  mainly  contributed  to 
such  issue,  is  beyond  question.*  The  event  was  salutary,  like 
life  instead  of  death,  to  anarchic  Germany;  and  did  eminent 
honor  to  Friedrich's  judgment  in  men. 

'  Mentzel,  Geschichte  der  Deutschen,  p.  345. 

2  Kentsch   pp.  299,  285,  298.  3  Kohler,  pp.  249,  251. 


108        I'.RANDKNnnn;   and    IIOHENZOLLERNS.       Hook  I r. 

1278. 

Richard  of  Cornwall  having  at  last  died,  and  his  futilo  (ier- 
man  clerks  having  quitted  Berkhanisteatl  forever,  —  Alphonso 
of  Castille,  not  now  urged  by  rivalry,  and  seeing  long  since 
what  a  crank  nuuhine  tlie  thing  wius,  had  no  ohjection  to  give 
it  up;  said  so  to  the  Pope,  —  who  was  himself  anxious  f(»r  a| 
settled  Kaiser,  the  supplies  of  Papal  (iernian  cash  having  run 
almost  dry  during  thi-si'  trembles.  Wliereupon  ensued  earnest 
consultations  among  leading  German  men  ;  Diet  of  the  Empire, 
sternly  practical  (we  may  widl  jH'rceive),  and  with  a  minimum 
of  talk,  the  Pope  too  Ix'ing  held  rather  well  at  a  distance :  the 
result  of  which  was  wliat  we  see.'  Mainly  due  to  Friedrich  of 
NUrnberg,  say  all  Historians  ;  conjoining  with  him  the  then 
Archbishop  of  Mainz,  who  is  otticially  President  Elector  (liter- 
ally Convener  of  Electors):  they  two  diil  it.  Avcliltishop  of 
Mainz  hiul  himself  a  pleasant  accidental  acquaint^mce  with 
Rudolf,  —  a  night's  lodging  once  at  Hai)sburg,  with  escort 
over  the  Hills,  in  dangi-rous  circumstan«M's  ;  —  :uid  might  the 
more  readily  be  matle  to  undersUmd  wliat  qualities  the  man 
now  ha<l ;  and  how,  in  justness  of  insight,  toughness  of  char- 
acter, and  general  strength  of  bridle-hand,  this  actually  might 
be  the  atleipiate  man. 

Kai»*r  Rudolf  and  Burograf  Frudrvh  JIT. 

Last  time  we  saw  Rudolf,  near  thirty  years  ago,  he  was  some 
equerry  or  subaltern  dignitary  among  the  Ritters  of  King 
Ottocar,  doing  a  Crusade  against  the  Prussian  Heathen,  and 
seeing  his  master  found  Konigsl)erg  in  that  country.  Changed 
times  now !  Ottocar  King  of  Bohemia,  who  (l>y  the  strong 
hand  mainly,  and  money  to  Richard  of  Cornwall,  in  the  late 
troubles)  has  become  Duke  of  Austria  and  much  else,  had 
himself  expected  the  Kaisership;  and  of  all  astonished  men, 
King  Ottocar  was  probably  the  most  astonished  at  the  choice 
made.  A  dread  sovereign,  fierce,  and  terribly  opulent,  and 
every  way  resplendent  to  such  degree ;  and  this  threadbare 
Swiss  gentleman-at-arms,  once  "  my  domestic "  (as  Ottocar 
loved  to  term  it),  preferred  to  me  !  Flat  insanity.  King  Ottocar 
1  29th  September,  1273. 


<'iiAi-.  VII.  BUlilJUKAF    riilEDKRlI    III.  109 

1:^78. 

thought ;  refused  to  acknowledge  such  a  Kaiser ;  would  not  iu 

the  least  give  up  his  unjust  properties,  or  even  do  homage  for 

thoni  or  the  others. 

-l>ut  there  also  Kudolf  contrived  to  be  ready  for  him.  Kudolf 
invaded  his  rich  Austrian  territories ;  smote  down  Vienna,  and 
all  resistance  that  there  was;*  forced  Ottocar  to  beg  j)ardon 
and  peace.  ''  No  pardon,  nor  any  speech  of  peace,  till  you  first 
do  homage  for  all  tliose  lands  of  yours,  whatever  we  may  find 
them  .to  be!"  Ottocar  was  very  loath;  but  could  not  help 
himself.  Ottocar  (piitted  I'rag  with  a  resplendent  retinue,  to 
come  into  the  Danube  country,  and  do  homage  to  "  my  do- 
mestic "  that  once  was.  He  bargained  that  the  sad  ceremony 
should  Ik'  at  leiu>t  private  ;  on  an  Island  in  the  Danuln',  Iwtween 
the  two  retinues  or  armies ;  ami  in  a  tent,  so  that  only  official 
select  persons  might  see  it.  The  Island  is  called  Camhenj 
(near  Vienna,  I  ct)nclude),  iu  the  middle  of  the  Donau  Kiver: 
there  Ottocar  accordingly  knelt ;  he  in  great  jMDmp  of  tailorage, 
Rudolf  in  mere  Ijuff  jerkin,  i)ractical  leather  and  iron;  —  hide 
it,  charit;ible  canvas,  from  all  but  a  few  I  Alas,  preci.^ely  at 
this  moment,  the  treacherous  canvas  rushes  down,  —  hung  so 
on  purjMJse,  thinks  Ottocar ;  and  it  is  a  tent  indeed,  but  a  tent 
without  walls ;  and  all  the  world  sees  me  in  this  scandalous 
plight ! 

Ottocar  rode  home  in  deep  gloom ;  his  poor  "Wife,  too,  up- 
braided him:  he  straightway  rallied  into  War  again;  Rudolf 
again  very  ready  to  meet  him.  Rudolf  met  him,  Friedrich  of 
Niirnberg  there  among  the  rest  under  the  Reichs-Banner ;  on 
the  ^[archfeld  by  the  Donau  (modern  Wagram  near  by)  ;  and 
entirely  beat  and  even  slew  and  ruined  Ottocar.*  Whereby 
Austria  fell  now  to  Rudolf,  who  made  his  sons  Dukes  of  it ; 
which,  or  even  Archdukes,  they  are  to  this  day.  Bohemia, 
Moravia,  of  these  also  Rudolf  would  have  been  glad ;  but  of 
these  there  is  an  heir  of  Ottocar's  left;  these  will  require 
time  and  luck. 

Prosperous  though  toilsome  days  for  Rudolf ;  who  proved 
an  excellent  bit  of  stuff  for  a  Kaiser  ;  and  found  no  rest, 
proving  what  stuff  he  was.  In  which  prosperities,  as  indeed 
1   1276  (Kohler.  p.  253).  2  26th  AucuBt,  1278  (Kohler,  p.  253). 


110      i;il\M)i:niui;(;  and  hoiienzollerns.     Rm.k  if. 

1:1.6. 

lie  continued  to  do  in  the  liCTA"  and  cils,  Burggraf  Fried- 
rich  III.  of  Niirnberg  naturall}'  |yartook ;  hence,  and  not  gratis 
at  all,  the  Hereditary  Uurggrafdom,  and  many  other  favors 
anjl  accessions  he  got.  For  he  continued  Rudolf's  steiuly 
helper,  friend  and  fii-st-nian  in  all  things,  to  the  very  end. 
Evidently  one  of  the  most  imiwrUint  men  in  Germany,  and 
candor  will  lead  us  to  guess  one  of  the  worthiest,  during  those 
had  years  of  Interregnum,  ;uid  the  U'tter  ones  of  Kaisership. 
After  Conrad  his  great-grandfather  he  is  the  second  notable 
architect  of  the  Family  House  ;  —  founded  by  Conrad ;  con- 
.-^picuousl}'  built  up  by  this  Friedrieh  III.,  and  the  Hrst  start/ 
of  it  linished,  so  to  s|M.»ak.  Then  come  two  Friedrichs  as  Hurg- 
grafs,  his  son  and  his  gnuidson's  grandson,  "  Friedrieh  I V." 
and  "  Friedrieh  VI.,''  by  wln»m  it  was  raised, to  the  second 
story  and  the  tliiiil.  —  theiiciTnrtli  oiie  nf  the  liiirh  Imiises  of 
the  world. 

That  is  till'  giimiKS*' W(  lum  give  ol  liitUruh  hrst  Iltreditary 
lUirggraf,  and  of  his  Cousin  Rudolf  first  Hapsburg  Kaiser. 
The  latest  Austrian  Kaisers,  the  latest  Kings  of  l*russia,  they 
are  sons  of  these  two  men. 


CllAriKi:    VIII. 

ASCAXIEn    M.VKKiiRAVES    IN    BK A\nF.\Bt'RO. 

We  have  said  nothing  of  the  Ascanier  Markgraves,  Electors 
of  Brandenburg,  all  this  while ;  nor,  in  these  limits,  can  we 
now  or  henceforth  say  almost  anything.  A  proud  enough, 
valiant  and  diligent  line  of  Markgraves ;  who  had  much  fight- 
ing and  other  struggle  in  the  world,  —  steadily  enlarging  their 
border  ujxin  the  Wends  to  the  north ;  and  adjusting  it,  with 
mixed  success,  against  the  Wettin  gentlemen,  who  are  Mark- 
graves  farther  east  ('n\  the  Lnxtsitz  now),  who  bound  us  to  the 
south  too  (Mi'Usen,  Misnia),  and  who  in  fact  came  in  for  the 
whole  of  modern  Saxony  in  the  end.  Much  fighting,  too,  there 
■was  with  the  Archbishops  of  Magdebarg,  now  that  the  Wends 


CiiAi-.  Mil.  ASCANIEU   MAKKGRAVES.  Ill 

1278. 

luv  down  :  standing  quarrel  there,  on  the  small  scale,  like  th:it 
of  Kaiser  and  J'ojn*  on  the  great;  siieh  quarrel  as  is  to  be  seen 
in  all  places,  and  on  all  manner  of  scales,  in  that  era  of  the 
Christian  World. 

-None  of  our  M;u-kgraves  rose  to  the  height  of  their  Pro- 
genitor, Albert  the  Bear ;  nor  indeed,  except  masseil  up,  as 
"  Albert's  Line,"  and  with  a  History  ever  more  condensing 
itself  almost  to  the  form  of  label,  can  they  pretend  to  memonv- 
bility  with  us.  What  can  Dryasdust  himself  do  witli  them  ? 
That, wholesome  Dutch  cabbages  continued  to  be  more  and 
more  planted,  and  peat-mire,  bleniling  itself  with  w;uste  sand, 
became  available  for  Christian  mankind,  —  intrusive  Ciiaos, 
and  especially  Divine  Triylajth  and  his  ferocities  being  well 
held  aloof:  —  this,  after  all,  is  the  real  History  of  our  Mark- 
graves;  and  of  this,  by  the  nature  of  the  case,  Dryasdust  can 
say  nothing.  "Xew  Mark,"  which  once  meant  Brandenburg 
at  large,  is  getting  subdivided  into  Mid-Mark,  into  UrlcernvAi\ 
(closest  to  the  Wends);  and  in  (^)ld  Mark  and  New  much  is 
/  spreading,  much  getting  planted  and  founded.  In  tlie  course 
of  centuries  there  will  grow  gradually  to  be  "  seven  cities ; 
and  ;is  many  towns,"  says  one  old  jubilant  Topographer, 
"  as  there  are  days  in  the  yeai*,"  —  struggling  to  count  up 
305  of  them. 

Of  Berlin   City. 

In  the  year  (guessed  to  be)  1240,  one  Ascanier  Markgraf 
"  fortities  Berlin  ;"  that  is,  first  makes  Berlin  a  German  Lurg 
and  inhabited  outpost  in  those  parts  :  —  the  very  name,  some 
think,  means  "  Little  Rampart"  {WehrWw),  built  there,  on  the 
banks  of  the  Spree,  against  the  Wends,  and  peopled  witli 
Dutch ;  of  which  latter  fact,  it  seems,  the  old  dialect  of  the 
place  yields  traces.*     How  it  rose  afterwards  to  be  chosen  for 

'  Nicolai,  Beschreihung  der  KOniqlichen  Residenzstadte  Berlin  and  Potsdam 
(Berlin,  1786),  i.  pp.  16,  17  of  "  Einlcitung."  Nicolai  rejects  the  Wekrlin  ety- 
moloijy ;  a^lmit^s  that  the  name  was  evidently  appellative,  not  proper,  "  The 
Berlin,"  "  To  the  Berlin  ;  "  finds  in  the  world  two  ohjects,  one  of  them  at 
Halle,  still  called  "  The  Berlin  ; "  and  thinks  it  must  have  meant  (in  some 
lansrnage  of  extinct  mortals)  "  Wild  Pastiu-e-grouiid,"  —  "  The  Scrribs,"  as  we 
should  call  it.  —  Possible  ;  perhaps  likelj. 


112       BRANDENBURG  AND  HOHENZOLLERNS.       Book  ii. 

1278: 

Metropolis,  one  cannot  say,  except  that  it  had  a  central  situa- 
tion for  the  now  widened  principalities  of  Brandenburg :  the 
place  otlierwise  is  sandy  by  nature,  sand  and  swamp  the  con- 
stituents of  it ;  and  stands  on  a  sluggish  river  the  color  of  oil. 
Wendish  fishermen  had  founded  some  first  nucknis  of  it  long 
before ;  and  called  their  tishing-hamlet  Coin,  which  is  said  to 
be  the  general  Wendish  title  for  places  founded  on  piles,  a 
needful  method  where  your  basis  is  swamp.  At  all  events, 
"  Coin "  still  designates  the  oldest  quarter  in  Berlin  ;  and 
"  Coin  on  the  Spree "  (Cologne,  or  Coin  on  the  Rhine,  being 
very  different)  continued,  almost  to  modern  times,  to  be  the 
Official  name  of  the  Capital. 

How  the  Dutch  and  Wends  agreed  together,  within  their 
rampart,  inclusive  of  both,  is  not  said.  The  river  lay  be- 
tween ;  they  had  two  languages ;  peace  was  necessary :  it  is 
probable  they  were  long  rather  on  a  taciturn  footing !  But 
in  the  oily  river  you  do  catch  various  fish;  Coin,  amid  its 
quagmires  and  straggling  sluggish  waters,  can  be  rendered 
very  strong.  Some  husbandry,  wet  or  dry,  is  possible  to  dili- 
gent Dutchmen.  There  is  room  for  trade  also ;  Spree  Havel 
Elbe  is  a  direct  water-road  to  Hamburg  and  the  Ocean;  by 
the  Oder,  which  is  not  very  far,  you  communicate  with  the 
Baltic  on  this  hand,  and  with  Poland  and  the  uttermost  parts 
of  Silesia  on  that.  Enough,  Berlin  grows ;  becomes,  in  about 
300  years,  for  one  reason  and  auotlier,  Capital  City  of  the 
country,  of  these  many  countries.  The  Markgraves  or  Elec- 
tors, after  quitting  Brandenburg,  did  not  come  immediately 
to  Berlin ;  their  next  Residence  was  Tangermiinde  {Mouth  of 
the  Tanger,  Avhere  little  Tanger  issues  into  Elbe) ;  a  much 
grassier  place  than  Berlin,  and  which  stands  on  a  Hill,  clay- 
and-sand  Hill,  likewise  advantageous  for  strength.  That 
]>prlin  should  have  grown,  after  it  once  became  Capital,  is 
not  a  mystery.  It  has  quadrupled  itself,  and  more,  within 
the  last  hundred  years,  and  I  think  doubled  itself  within  the 
last  thirty. 


I 


Chap.  VUI.  OTTO    WITH   THE   ARKOW.  113 

1278. 

MarTcgraf  Otto  IV.,  or   Otto  with  the  Arrow. 

One  Ascanier  JVIai-kgraf,  and  one  only,  Otto  IV.  by  title, 
was  a  Toet  withal ;  had  an  actual  habit  of  doing  verse. 
There  are  certain  so-called  Poems  of  his,  still  extant,  read 
by  Dryasdust,  with  such  enthusiasm  as  he  can  get  up,  in  the 
old  Collectioji  of  Minne-singGrs,  made  by  Manesse  the  Ziiiicn 
Burgermeister,  while  the  matter  was  much  fresher  than  it 
now  is.^  Madrigals  all ;  JjTi/i/ie-Songs,  describing  the  pas- 
sion of  love ;  how  Otto  felt  under  it,  —  well  and  also  ill ; 
with  little  peculiarity  of  symptom,  as  appears.     One  of  his 

lines  is, 

"  Ich  wiinsch  ick  were  tot,  I  wish  that  I  were  dead : " 

—  the  others  shall  remain  safe  in  Manesse's  Collection. 

This  same  Markgraf  Otto  IV.,  Year  1278,  had  a  dreadful 
quarrel  with  the  See  of  Magdeburg,  about  electing  a  Brother 
of  his.  The  Chapter  had  chosen  another  than  Otto's  Brotlier ; 
Otto  makes  war  upon  the  Chapter.  Comes  storming  along; 
"will  stable  my  horses  in  your  Cathedral,"  on  such  and  such 
a  day !  But  the  Archbishop  chosen,  who  had  been  a  fighter 
formerly,  stirs  up  the  Magdeburgers,  by  preaching  ("Horses 
to  be  stabled  here,  my  Christian  brethren"),  by  relics,  and 
quasi-miraeles,  to  a  furious  condition ;  leads  them  out  against 
Otto,  beats  Otto  utterly ;  brings  him  in  captive,  amid  hooting 
jubilations  of  the  conceivable  kind :  "  Stable  ready ;  but  where 
are  the  horses,  —  Serene  child  of  Satanas  !  "  Archbishop 
makes  a  Wooden  Cage  for  Otto  (big  beams,  spars  stout 
enough,  mere  straw  to  lie  on),  and  locks  him  up  there.  In 
a  public  situation  in  the  City  of  Magdeburg ;  —  visible  to 
mankind  so,  during  certain  months  of  that  year  1278.  It 
Avas  in  the  very  time  while  Ottocar  was  getting  finished  in 
the  ]Marchfeld ;  much  mutiny  still  abroad,  and  the  new  Kaiser 
Rudolf  very  busy. 

Otto's  Wife,   all  streaming  in  tears,  and  flaming  in  zeal, 

1  Riidiger  von  Manesse,  who  fought  the  Austrians,  too,  made  his  Sammlunj 
(Collection)  in  the  latter  haK  of  the  fourteenth  century;  it  was  printed,  after 
mam'  narrow  risks  of  destruction  in  the  interim,  in  1758,  —  Bodmer  and 
Breitinger  editing  ;  —  at  Zurich,  2  vols.  4to. 

VOL.    V.  '-■ 


1 1  I        BRANDENBURG  AND  IIOHENZOLLERXS.       U^kjk  ii. 

1278. 

Avluit  shall  she  do?  "Sell  your  jewels,"  so  atlvises  a  certain 
old  Juhann  vun  Buch,  discarded  Ex-offifial :  ''Sell  your  jewels, 
Madam;  l>ril»e  the  Canons  of  Magdeburg  with  extreme  seerecy, 
none  knowing  of  his  neighbor;  they  will  consent  to  ransom 
on  terms  jtossible.  Poor  Wife  bribed  as  was  bidden;  Canons 
voted  its  they  undertook;  unanimous  for  ransom, — high,  but 
humanly  possible.  Markgraf  Utto  gets  out  on  parole.  But 
now,  How  raise  such  a  ransom,  our  very  jewels  being  sold  ? 
Old  Joliaun  von  Bueh  ag.iin  indicates  ways  and  means, — 
miraculous  old  gentleman  :  —  Markgraf  Otto  returns,  money 
in  hand;  pays,  and  is  solemnly  discharged.  The  title  of  the 
sum  I  could  give  exact;  but  as  none  will  in  the  least  tell  me 
what  the  value  is,  I  humbly  forbear. 

"We  are  clear,  then,  at  this  date?"  said  ^larkgiaf  Otto 
from  his  horse,  just  taking  leave  of  the  Magdeburg  Canonry. 
"  Yes,"  answered  they.  —  "  Pshaw,  you  don't  know  the  value 
of  a  Markgraf  !  "  said  Otto.  "  What  is  it,  then  ?  "  _  "  Rain 
gold  ducats  on  his  war-liorse  and  him,"  said  C>tto,  looking 
up  with  a  satirical  grin,  ''  till  horse  and  Markgraf  are  buried 
in  them,  and  you  cannot  see  the  point  of  his  spear  atop!"  — 
That  would  be  a  cone  of  gold  coins  equal  to  the  article,  thinks 
our  Markgraf;  and  rides  grinning  away.^  —  The  poor  Arch- 
bishop, a  t'aliant  pious  man,  finding  out  that  late  strangely 
unanimous  vote  of  his  Chapter  for  ransoming  the  Markgraf, 
took  it  so  ill,  that  he  soon  died  of  a  broken  heart,  say  the  old 
Books.  Die  he  did,  before  long;  —  and  still  Otto's  Brother 
was  refused  as  successor.  Brother,  however,  again  survived; 
behaved  always  wisely ;  and  Otto  at  last  had  his  way.  "  Makes 
an  excellent  Archbishop,  after  all  I "  said  the  Magdeburgers. 
Those  were  rare  times,  Mr.  Rigmarole. 

The  same  Otto,  besieging  some  stronghold  of  his  Magde- 
burg or  other  enemies,  got  an  ari-ow  shot  into  the  skull  of 
him ;  into,  not  through ;  which  no  surgery  could  extract,  not 
for  a  year  to  come.  Otto  went  about,  sieging  much  the  same, 
with  the  iron  in  his  head ;  and  is  called  Otto  7uit  dem  Pfeile, 
Otto  Saffittat-his,  or  Otto  with  the  Arrow,  in  consequence. 
A  Markgraf  who  writes  ^ladrigals ;  who  does  sieges  with  an 
1  Michaelis,  i.  271  ;  Tauli,  i.  316  ;  Klosa;  &c. 


CicAi-.  VIII.  OTTO   WITH   THE   ARROW.  115 

1278, 

arrow  in  his  head ;  "who  lies  in  a  Avooden  cage,  jeered  by  the 
IMagdeburgers,  and  proposes  such  a  cone  of  ducats :  I  thought 
him  the  niemorablest  of  those  forgotten  INIarkgraves ;  and 
.tliat  his  jolting  Life-pilgrimage  might  stand  as  the  general 
sample.  Multiply  a  year  of  Otto  by  200,  you  have,  on  easy 
conditions,  some  imagination  of  a  History  of  the  Ascanier 
INIarkgraves.  Forgettable  otherwise ;  or  it  can  be  read  in  the 
gross,  darkened  with  endless  details,  and  thrice-dreary,  half- 
iutelligible  traditions,  in  I'auli's  fatal  Quartos,  and  elsewhere, 
if  any  one  needs.  —  Tlie  year  of  that  Magdeburg  speech  about 
the  cone  of  ducats  is  1278:  King  Edward  the  First,  in  this 
country,  was  walking  about,  a  prosix-rous  num  of  forty,  with 
very  Long  JS/ianh\s,  and  also  with  a  head  of  good  length. 

Otto,  as  had  been  the  case  in  the  former  Line,  -was  a  fre- 
(pient  name  among  those  Markgraves :  "  Otto  the  Pious " 
(whom  we  saw  crusading  once  in  Preussen,  with  King  Otto- 
car  his  Brother-in-law),  "Otto  the  Tall,"  "Otto  the  Short 
(Farvus)  ; "  1  know  not  how  many  Ottos  besides  him  "  with 
the  Arrow."  Half  a  century  after  this  one  of  the  Arrow 
(under  his  Grand-Nephew  it  was),  the  Ascanier  Markgraves 
ended,  their  Line  also  dying  out. 

Not  the  successfulest  of  Markgraves,  especially  in  later 
times.  Brandenburg  was  indeed  steadily  an  Electorate,  its 
^larkgraf  a  Kurfiirst,  or  Elector  of  the  Empire  ;  and  always 
rather  on  the  increase  than  otherwise.  But  the  Territories 
were  apt  to  be  much  split  up  to  younger  sons  ;  two  or  more 
Markgi-aves  at  once,  the  eldest  for  Elector,  with  other  arrange- 
ments ;  which  seldom  answer.  They  had  also  fallen  into  the 
habit  of  borrowing  money ;  pawning,  redeeming,  a  good  deal, 
with  Teutsch  Eitters  and  others.  Then  they  puddled  consid- 
erably,—  and  to  their  loss,  seldom  choosing  the  side  that 
proved  winner,  —  in  the  general  broils  of  the  Keich,  which 
at  that  time,  as  we  have  seen,  was  unusually  anarchic.  None 
of  the  successfulest  of  Markgraves  latterly.  But  they  were 
regretted  beyond  measure  in  comparison  with  the  next  set 
that  came ;  as  we  shall  see. 


116       BRANDENBURG  AND  HOHENZOLLERNS.       Book  II. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


BURGGRAF    FRIEDRICH    IV. 


BRAXDExnuiiG  and  the  Hohouzolk'rn  Family  of  Nurnberg 
have  hitherto  no  mutual  acquaintanceship  whatever :  they  go, 
each  its  own  course,  wide  enough  apart  in  tlie  world  ;  — littlo 
dreaming  that  they  are  to  meet  by  and  by,  and  coalesce,  wed 
for  better  and  worse,  and  become  one  flesh.  As  is  the  way  iu 
all  romance.  "Marriages,"  among  men,  and  otlrer  entities  of 
importance,  ''are,  evidently,  made  in  Heaven." 

Friedrich  IV.  of  Nurnberg,  Son  of  that  Friedrith  ITT., 
Kaiser  Rudolf's  successful  friend,  was  again  a  notable  in- 
creasor  of  his  House  ;  whicli  finally,  under  his  Great-grand- 
son, named  Friedrich  VI.,  attained  the  Electoral  height.  Of 
which  there  was  already  some  hint.  Well ;  under  the  first 
of  these  two  Friedrichs,  some  slight  approximation,  and 
under  his  Son,  a  transient  express  introduction  (so  to  speak) 
of  Brandenburg  to  Hohenzollern  took  place,  without  imme- 
diate result  of  consequence ;  but  under  the  second  of  them 
occurred  the  wedding,  as  we  may  call  it,  or  union  "  for  better 
or  worse,  till  death  do  us  part."  —  How  it  came  about  ?  Easy 
to  ask.  How  !  The  reader  will  have  to  cast  some  glances  into 
the  confused  Beicfis-HistoTy  of  the  time ;  —  timid  glances,  for 
the  element  is  of  dangerous,  extensive  sort,  mostly  jungle  and 
shaking  bog ;  —  and  we  must  travel  through  this  corner  of  it, 
as  on  shoes  of  swiftness,  treading  lightly. 

Contested  Elections  in  the  Reich :   Kaiser  Albert  I. ;  after 
whom  Six  Non-Hapshurg  Kaisers. 

The  Line  of  Rudolf  of  Hapsburg  did  not  at  once  succeed 
continuously  to  the  Empire,  as  the  wont  had  been  in  such 
cases,  where   the  sous  were  willing  and  of  good  likelihood. 


r-iiAi-.  rx.  CONTESTED  ELECTIONS.  117 

After  such  a  spell  of  anarchy,  parties  still  ran  higher  than 
usual  in  the  Holy  Roman  Empire ;  and  wide-yawning  splits 
would  not  yet  coalesce  to  the  old  pitch.  It  appears  too  the 
posterity  of  Rudolf,  stiff,  inarticulate,  proud  men,  and  of  a  turn 
lor  engrossing  and  amassing,  were  not  always  lovely  to  the 
jiublic.  Albert,  Rudolfs  eldest  sou,  for  instance.  Kaiser  Al- 
bert I.,  —  who  did  succeed,  though  not  at  once,  or  till  after 
killing  Rudolf's  immediate  successor,^  —  Albert  was  by  no 
means  a  prepossessing  man,  though  a  tough  and  hungry  one. 
It  iiTust  be  OAvned,  he  had  a  harsh  ugly  character ;  and  face  to 
match :  big-nosed,  loose-lipped,  blind  of  an  eye  :  not  Kaiser- 
like  at  all  to  an  Electoral  Body.  ^^  Est  homo  monoculus,  et 
vultu  inistlco ;  non  iwtest  esse  Inq^erator  (A  one-eyed  fellow, 
and  looks  like  a  clown  ;  he  cannot  be  Emperor)  !  "  said  Pope 
Boniface  VIII.,  when  consulted  about  him.^ 

Enough,  from  the  death  of  Rudolf,  a.d.  1291,  there  inter- 
vened a  hundred  and  tifty  years,  and  eight  successive  Kaisers 
singly  or  in  line,  only  one  of  whom  (this  same  Albert  of  the 
unlovely  countenance)  was  a  Hapsburger,  —  before  the  Fam- 
ily, often  trying  it  all  along,  could  get  a  third  time  into  tli;e 
Imperial  saddle.  Where,  after  that,  it  did  sit  steady.  Once  in 
for  the  third  time,  the  Hapsburgers  got  themselves  "elected" 
(as  they  still  called  it)  time  after  time  ;  always  elected,  — 
with  but  one  poor  exception,  which  will  much  concern  my 
readers  by  and  by,  —  to  the  very  end  of  the  matter.  And  saw 
the  Holy  Roman  Empire  itself  expire,  and  as  it  were  both 
saddle  and  horse  vanish  out  of  Nature,  before  they  would 
dismount.  Nay  they  still  ride  there  on  the  shadow  of  a  sad- 
dle, so  to  speak ;  and  are  "  Kaisers  of  Austria  "  at  this  hour. 
Steady  enough  of  seat  at  last,  after  many  vain  trials  ! 

For  during  those  hundred  and  fifty  years,  —  among  those 
six  intercalary  Kaisers,  too,  who  followed  Albert,  —  they  were 
always  trying;  always  thinking  they  had  a  kind  of  quasi 
right  to  it;  whereby  the  Empire  often  fell  into  trouble  at 
Election-time.     For   they  were   proud   stout   men,  our  Haps- 

1  Adolf  of  Nassau;  slain  by  Albert's  own  hand;  "Battle"  of  Hasenbiihel 
"  near  Worms,  2d  July,  1298  "  (Kiihler,  p.  265). 

*  Kohler,  pp.  2G7-273 ;  and  Muuizhelustigungen,  xix.  156-160. 


118        BRANDENBURG  AND  HOHENZOLLERNS.        Book  IT. 

12t)8. 

burgers,  though  of  taciturn  unconciliatory  ways  ;  and  Rudolf 
had  so  fitted  them  out  with  fruitful  Austrian  Dukedoms, 
whicli  thoy  much  increased  by  marriages  and  otherwise. — 
Styi'ia,  Cavinthia,  the  Tyrol,  by  degrees,  not  to  speak  of  their 
native  Ilapshirg  much  enlarged,  and  claims  on  Switzerland 
all  round  it,  —  they  had  excellent  means  of  battling  for  their 
pretensions  and  disputable  elections.  N(me  of  them  succeeded, 
however,  for  a  h\indred  and  fifty  years,  except  that  same  one- 
eyed,  loosc-li])pcd  unbeautiful  Albert  I. ;  a  Kaiser  dreadfully 
fond  of  earthly  goods,  too.  Who  indeed  grasped  all  round 
liim,  at  property  half  his,  or  wholly  not  his :  Rhine-tolls, 
Cro-rtTi  of  Bolicmia,  Landgraviate  of  Thiiringen,  Swiss  Forest 
Cantons,  Crown  of  Hungary,  Crown  of  France  even :  —  getting 
endless  quarrels  on  his  hands,  and  much  defeat  mixed  with 
any  victory  there  was.  Poor  soul,  he  had  six-and-twenty 
fhildren  by  one  wile ;  and  felt  that  there  was  need  of  apa- 
nages !  He  is  understood  (guessed,  not  proved)  to  have  insti- 
gated two  assassinations  in  pursuit  of  these  objects ;  and  he 
very  clearly  underwent  one  in  his  own  person.  Assassination 
first  was  of  Dietzman  the  Thiiringian  Landgraf,  an  Anti- 
Albert  champion,  who  refused  to  be  robbed  by  Albert,  —  for 
whom  the  great  Dante  is  (with  almost  jialpable  absurdity) 
fabled  to  have  written  an  Epitaph  still  legible  in  the  Church 
at  Leipzig.*  Assassination  second  was  of  Wenzel,  the  poor 
young  Bohemian  King,  Ottocar's  Grandson  and  last  heir.  Sure 
enough,  this  important  young  gentleman  "  was  murdered  by 
some  one  at  Olmiitz  next  year  "  (1306,  a  promising  event  for 
Albert  then),  "  but  none  yet  knows  who  it  was."  ^ 

Neither  of  which  suspicious  transactions  came  to  any  result 
for  Albert;  as  indeed  most  of  his  unjust  graspings  proved 
failures.  He  at  one  time  had  thoughts  of  the  Crown  of 
France  ;  "  Yours  /  solemnly  declare !  "  said  the  Pope.  But 
that  came  to  nothing;  —  only  to  France's  shifting  of  the 
Popes  to  Avignon,  more  under  the  thumb  of  France.  What 
his  ultimate  success  with  Tell  and  the  Forest  Cantons  was,  we 
all  know !     A  most  clutching,  strong-fisted,  dreadfully  hungry, 

1  JleiKkciiii  ^criptares,  i.  §  Fredericus  Admorsus  (by  Tentzel). 
a  Kohler,  p.  270. 


Chap.  IX.  KAISER  HENRY  VII.  119 

1308. 

tough  and  unbeautiful  man.  Whom  his  own  Nephew,  at  last, 
had  to  assassinate,  at  the  Ford  of  the  Kens  (near  Windisch 
Village,  meeting  of  the  lieus  and  Aar ;  1st  May,  I0O8)  :  ''  Scan- 
dalous Jew  pawnbroker  of  an  Uncle,  wilt  thou  flatly  keep  from 
'  me  my  Father's  heritage,  then,  intrusted  to  thee  in  his  hour 
of  death  ?  Regardless  of  God  and  man,  and  of  the  last  look 
of  a  dying  Brother  ?  Uncle  worse  than  pawnbroker ;  for  it 
is  a  heritage  with  no  pa'WTi  on  it,  with  much  the  reverse ! " 
thought  the  Nephew,  —  and  stabbed  said  Uncle  down  dead ; 
hanging  gone  across  with  him  in  the  boat ;  attendants  looking 
on  in  distraction  from  the  other  side  of  the  river.  Was  called 
Johannes  Parriclda  in  consequence ;  fled  out  of  human  sight 
that  day,  he  and  his  henchmen,  never  to  turn  up  again  till 
Doomsday.  For  the  pursuit  was  transcendent,  regardless  of 
expense ;  the  cry  for  legal  vengeance  very  great  (on  the  part 
of  Albert's  daughters  chiefly),  though  in  vain,  or  nearly  so,  in 
this  world.^ 

Of  Kaiser  Henry  VH.  and  the  Luxemburg  Kaisers. 

Of  the  other  six  Kaisers  not  Hapsburgers  we  are  bound  to 
mention  one,  and  dwell  a  little  on  his  fortunes  and  those  of 
the  family  he  founded ;  both  Ikandenburg  and  our  Hohenzol- 
lerns  coming  to  be  much  connected  therewith,  as  time  went  on. 
This  is  Albert's  next  successor,  Henry  Count  of  Luxemburg ; 
called  among  Kaisers  Henry  VII.  He  is  founder,,  he  alone 
among  these  Non-Hapsburgers,  of  a  small  intercalary  line 
of  Kaisers,  "  the  Luxemburg  Line ; "  who  amount  indeed  only 
to  Four,  himself  iacluded;  and  are  not  otherwise  of  much 
memorability,  if  we  except  himself;  though  straggling  about 
like  well-rooted  briers,  in  that  favorable  ground,  they  have 
accidentally  hooked  themselves  ujjon  World-History  in  one 
or  two  points.  By  accident  a  somewhat  noteworthy  line, 
those  Luxemburg  Kaisers :  —  a  celebrated  place,  too,  or  name 
of  a  place,  that  "  Luxembourg  "  of  theirs,  with  its  French  Mar- 
shals, grand  Parisian  Edifices,  lending  it  new  lustre :    what, 

1  Kohler,  p.  272.  Horma}T,  CEsterreickischer  Plutarch,  oder  Leben  und  Bild 
nisse,  ^-c.  (12  Bandchen  ;  Wieu,  1S07,  —  a  superior  Book),  i.  65. 


1 20        RRANDENBURG  AND  HOIIENZOLLERNS.       B^ok  ir. 

thinks  tlie  reader,  is  the  meaning  of  Liizzenburg,  Luxemburg, 
Luxembourg  ?  ^Merely  Liitxe/hxirg,  wrong  pronounced ;  and 
that  again  is  nothing  but  Z,/<</eborough :  such  is  the  luck  of 
names !  — 

Heinrich  Graf  von  Luxemburg  was,  after  some  pause  on 
the  parricide  of  Albert,  chosen  Kaiser,  *'  on  account  of  his 
renowned  valor,"  say  the  old  Books,  —  and  also,  add  the 
slirewder  of  them,  because  his  Brother,  Archbishop  of  Trier, 
was  one  of  the  Electors,  and  the  Pope  did  not  like  either  the 
Austrian  or  the  French  candidate  tlien  in  the  field.  Chosen, 
at  all  events,  he  was,  27th  November,  l.'i(>8 ;  *  clearly,  and  by 
much,  the  best  Kaiser  that  could  be  had.  A  puissant  soul, 
who  might  have  done  great  things,  had  he  lived.  He  settled 
feuds ;  cut  off  oppressions  from  the  Jieichiitudte  (Free  Towns)  ; 
had  a  will  of  just  sort,  and  found  or  made  a  way  for  it.  Bohe- 
mia lapsed  to  him,  the  old  race  of  Kings  having  perished  out, 
—  the  last  of  them  far  too  suddenly  "  at  Olmiitz,"  as  we  saw 
lately  !  Some  opposition  there  was,  but  much  more  favor  espe- 
cially by  the  Bohemian  I'eople;  and  the  point,  after  some  small 
"Siege  of  rrag"and  the  like,  was  definitely  carried  by  the 
Kaiser.  The  now  Burggraf  of  Niirnberg,  Friedrich  IV.,  son  of 
Eudolfs  friend,  was  present  at  this  Siege  of  Prag;^  a  Burg- 
graf nuu'h  attached  to  Kaiser  Henry,  as  all  good  Germans 
were.     But  the  Kaiser  did  not  live. 

He  went  to  Italy,  our  Burggraf  of  Xiirnberg  and  many  more 
along  with  him,  to  pull  the  crooked  Guelf-Ghibtdline  Facts 
and  Avignon  Pope  a  little  straight,  if  possible ;  and  was  vigor- 
ously doing  it,  when  he  died  on  a  sudden ;  "  poisoned  in  sacra- 
mental wine,"  say  the  Germans  !  One  of  the  crowning  summits 
of  human  scoimdrelism,  which  painfully  stick  in  the  mind. 
It  is  certain  he  arrived  well  at  Buonconvento  near  Sienna,  on 
the  24th  September,  1313,  in  full  march  towards  the  rebellious 
King  of  Naples,  whom  the  Pope  much  countenanced.  At 
Buonconvento,  Kaiser  Henry  wished  to  enjoy  the  communion ; 
and  a  Dominican  monk,  whose  dark  rat-eyed  look  men  after- 
'^ords  bethought  them  of,  administered  it  to  him  in  both 
^ecies  (Council  of  Trent  not  yet  quite  prohibiting  the  liquid 
1  Kohler,  p.  274.  =  1310  (Rentsch,  p.  311). 


i"iT  ^^'  JOHANN  KING   OF   BOHEMIA.  121 

species,  least  of  all  to  Kaisers,  wlio  are  by  theory  a  kind  of 
"Deacons  to  the  Pope,"  or  something  else');  —  administered 
it  in  both  species :  that  is  certain,  and  also  that  on  the  morrow 
Henry  was  dead.  The  Dominicans  endeavored  afterwards  to 
deny ;  which,  for  the  credit  of  human  nature,  one  Avishes  they 
had  done  with  effect.-  But  there  was  never  any  trial  had ; 
the  denial  was  considered  lame;  and  German  History  con- 
tinues to  shudder,  in  that  passage,  and  assert.  Poisoned  in 
the  wine  of  his  sacrament :  the  Florentines,  it  is  said,  were  at 
the  bottom  of  it,  and  had  hired  the  rat-eyed  Dominican  ;  —  "  0 
Italia,  0  Firenze ! "  That  is  not  the  way  to  ac-hieve  Italian 
Liberty,  or  Obedience  to  God ;  that  is  the  way  to  confirm,  as 
by  frightful  stygian  oath,  Italian  Slavery,  or  continual  Obedi- 
ence, under  varying  forms,  to  the  Other  Party  !  The  voice 
of  Dante,  then  alive  among  men,  proclaims,  sad  and  loving  as 
a  mother's  voice,  and  imj)lacable  as  a  voice  of  Doom,  that  you 
are  wandering,  and  have  wandered,  in  a  terrible  manner !  — 

Peter,  the  then  Ai'chbishop  of  Mainz,  says  there  had  not  for 
hundreds  of  years  such  a  death  befallen  the  German  Empire  ; 
to  which  Kijhler,  one  of  the  wisest  moderns,  gives  his  assent : 
"  It  could  not  enongh  be  lamented,"  says  he,  ''that  so  vigilant 
a  Kaiser,  in  the  flower  of  his  years,  should  have  been  torn 
from  the  world  in  so  devilish  a  manner :  who,  if  he  had  lived 
longer,  might  have  done  Teutschland  unspeakable  benefit."  ' 

Henry^s  Son  Johann  is  King  of  Bohemia ;  and  Ludivig  tlie 
Bavarian,  with  a  Contested  Election,  is  Kaiser. 

Henry  VIZ.  having  thus  perished  suddenly,  his  Son  Johann, 
scarcely  yet  come  of  age,  could  not  follow  him  as  Kaiser,  ac- 
cording to  the  Father's  thought ;  though  in  due  time  he  prose- 
cuted his  advancement  otherwise  to  good  purjxjse,  and  proved 
a  very  stirring  man  in  the  world.  By  his  Father's  appoint- 
ment, to  whom  as  Kaiser  the  chance  had  fallen,  he  was  already 

^  Voltaire,  Essai  siir  les  Morurs,  c.  67,  §  Henri  VTI.  ((Euvres,  xxi.  184). 
-  Kuliler,  p.  281   (Ptolemy  of  Lucca,  himself  a  Dominican,  is  one  of  the 
accnsinq  spirits  :  Mnratori,  1.  xi.  §  Ptolomccus  Lucensis,  a.d.  1313). 
8  Kohler,  pp.  28>-285. 


122        BRANDENBURG  AND  HOHENZOLLERNS.       Kook  ir. 

King  of  Bohemia,  strong  in  his  right  and  in  the  favor  of  the 
natives  ;  though  a  tituhir  Competitor,  Henry  of  the  Tyrol, 
beaten  oft"  by  the  late  Kaiser,  was  still  extant :  whom,  how- 
ever, and  all  other  perils  Johann  contrived  to  weather  ;  grow- 
ing up  to  be  a  far-sighted  stout-hearted  man,  and  potent 
Bohemian  King,  widely  renowned  in  his  day.  He  had  a  Son, 
and  then  two  Grandsons,  who  were  successively  Kaisers,  after 
a  sort ;  making  up  the  "  Luxemburg  Four  "  we  spoke  of.  Ho 
did  Crusades,  one  or  more,  for  the  Teutsch  Ritters,  in  a  sliin- 
ing  manner;  —  unhappily  with  loss  of  an  eye;  nay  ultimately, 
by  the  aid  of  quack  oculists,  with  loss  of  both  eyes.  An  am- 
bitious man,  not  to  be  quelled  by  blindness ;  man  with  much 
negotiation  in  him  ;  with  a  heavy  stroke  of  light  too,  and  tem- 
per notliing  loath  at  it ;  of  which  we  shall  see  some  glimpse 
by  and  liy. 

The  jnty  was,  for  the  Reich  if  not  for  liim,  he  could  not 
himself  become  Kaiser.  Perhaps  we  had  not  then  seen  Henry 
VII. 's  tine  enterprises,  like  a  fleet  of  half-built  ships,  go  mostly 
to  planks  again,  on  the  waste  sea,  had  his  Son  followed  him. 
But  there  was,  on  the  contrary,  a  contested  election  ;  Austria 
in  again,  as  usual,  and  again  unsuccessful.  The  late  Kaiser's 
Austrian  competitor,  "  Friedrich  the  Fair,  Duke  of  Austria," 
the  parricided  Albert's  Son,  was  again  one  of  the  parties. 
Against  whom,  with  real  but  not  quite  indisputable  majority, 
stood  Ludwig  Duke  of  I'avaria  :  "  Ludwig  IV.,"  "  Ludwig  dcr 
Baier  (the  Bavai'ian)  "  as  they  call  him  among  Kaisers.  Con- 
test attended  with  the  usual  election  expenses ;  war-wrestle, 
namely,  between  the  parties  till  one  threw  the  other.  There 
was  much  confused  wrestling  and  throttling  for  seven  years 
or  more  (1315-1322).  Our  Nurnberg  Burggraf,  Friedrich  IV., 
held  with  Ludwig,  as  did  the  real  majority,  though  in  a  lan- 
guid manner,  and  was  busy  he  as  few  were ;  the  Austrian 
Hapsbui'gs  also  doing  their  best,  now  under,  now  above. 
Johann  King  of  Bohemia  was  on  Ludwig's  side  as  yet.  Lud- 
wig's  own  Brother,  Kur-Pfalz  (ancestor  of  all  the  Electors, 
and  their  numerous  Branches,  since  known  there),  an  elder 
Brother,  was,  "out  of  spite  "  as  men  thought,  decidedly  against 
Ludwisr. 


Thai-.  IX.  JOHANX  KING  OF   BOHEMIA.  123 

1.J22. 

In  the  eighth  year  came  a  Fight  that  proved  decisive.  Fight 
at  Miihldorf  on  the  Inn,  28th  September,  1322,  —  far  down  in 
those  Danube  Countries,  beyond  where  Marlborough  ever  Avas, 
wliere  there  has  been  much  fighting  tirst  and  last ;  IJurggraf 
Friedrich  was  conspicuously  there.  A  very  great  Battle,  say 
the  old  Books,  —  says  Hormayr,  in  a  new  readable  Book,^ 
giving  minute  account  of  it.  Ludwig  rather  held  aloof  rear- 
ward ;  committed  his  business  to  the  HohenzoUern  Burggraf 
and  to  one  Schweppermann,  aided  by  a  noble  lord  called 
Eindsmaul  ("  Cowman f/t,"'  no  less),  and  by  others  experienced 
in  such  work.  Friedrich  the  Hapsbiu-ger  der  Schone,  Duke 
of  Austria,  and  self-styled  Kaiser,  a  gallant  handsome  man, 
breathed  mere  martial  fury,  they  say  :  he  knew  that  his 
Brother  Leopold  was  on  march  with  a  reinforcement  to  him 
from  the  Strasburg  quarter,  and  might  arrive  any  moment ; 
but  he  could  not  wait,  —  perhaps  afraid  Ludwig  might  run ;  — 
he  rashly  determined  to  beat  Ludwig  without  reinforcement. 
Our  rugged  fervid  Hormayr  (though  imitating  Tacitus  and 
Johannes  von  Miiller  overmuch)  will  instruct  fully  any  mod- 
ern that  is  curious  about  this  big  Battle  :  what  furious  charg- 
ing, worrying ;  how  it  "  lasted  ten  hours,"  how  the  blazing 
Handsome  Friedrich  stormed  about,  and  "  slew  above  fifty 
with  his  own  hand."  To  \is  this  is  the  interesting  point :  At 
one  turn  of  the  Battle,  tenth  hour  of  it  now  ending,  and  the 
tug  of  war  still  desperate,  there  arose  a  cry  of  joy  over  all 
the  Austrian  ranks,  "  Help  coming  !  Help  !  "  —  and  Friedrich 
noticed  a  body  of  Horse,  "  in  Austrian  cognizance  "  (such  the 
cunning  of  a  certain  man),  coming  in  upon  his  rear.  Austrians 
and  Friedrich  never  doubted  but  it  was  Brother  Leopold  just 
getting  on  the  ground ;  and  rushed  forward  doubly  fierce. 
Doubly  fierce ;  and  were  doubly  astonished  when  it  plunged 
in  upon  them,  sharp-edged,  as  Burggraf  Friedrich  of  Xiirn- 
berg,  —  and  quite  ruined  Austrian  Friedrich.  Austrian  Fried- 
rich fought  personally  like  a  lion  at  bay ;  but  it  availed 
nothing.  Eindsmaul  (not  lovely  of  lip,  Cowmouth,  so-called) 
disarmed  him  :  "  I  will  not  surrender  except  to  a  Prince  !  "  — 
so  Burggraf  Friedrich  was  got  to  take  surrender  of  him ;  and 
^  Hormavr,  CEsterrekhischer  Plutarch,  ii.  .31-37. 


1124  BRANDENBURG  AND  IIOIIENZOLLERNS.     Book  1 1. 

1322. 

the  Fight,  and  whole  Controversy  with  it,  was  completely 
won.^ 

Poor  Leopold,  the  Austrian  Brother,  did  not  arrive  till  the 
morrow  ;  and  saw  a  sad  sight,  before  flying  off  again.  Fried- 
rich  the  Fair  sat  prisoner  in  the  old  Castle  of  Traussnitz  {Ober 
Pfalz,  Upper  Palatinate,  or  Nurnberg  country)  for  three  years ; 
whittling  sticks  :  —  Tourists,  if  curious,  can  still  procure  speci- 
mens of  them  at  the  place,  for  a  consideration.  There  sat 
Friedricli,  Brother  Leopold  moving  Heaven  and  Earth,  —  and 
in  fact  they  said,  the  very  Devil  by  art  magic,''  —  to  no  pur- 
pose, to  deliver  him.  And  his  poor  Spanish  Wife  cried  her 
eyes,  too  literally,  out,  —  sight  gone  in  sad  fact. 

Ludwig  the  Bavarian  reigned  thenceforth, — though  never 
on  easy  terms.  How  grateful  to  Friedrich  of  Kiirnberg  we 
need  not  say.  For  one  thing,  he  gave  him  all  the  Austrian 
Prisoners  ;  whom  Friedrich,  judiciously  generous,  dismissed 
without  ransom  except  that  they  should  be  feudally  subject 
to  him  henceforth.  This  is  the  third  Hohenzollern  whom  we 
mark  as  a  conspicuous  acrpiirer  in  the  Hohenzollern  family, 
this  Friedrich  IV.,  builder  of  the  second  story  of  the  House. 
If  Conrad,  original  Burggraf,  founded  the  House,  then  (figura- 
tively speaking)  the  able  Friedrich  III.,  who  was  Ihidolf  of 
Hapsburg's  friend,  built  it  one  story  liigli ;  and  here  is  a  new 
Friedrich,  his  Son,  who  has  added  a  second  story.  It  is  as- 
tonishing, says  Dryasdust,  how  many  feudal  superiorities  the 
Anspach  and  Baireuth  people  still  have  in  Austria ; —  they 
maintain  their  own  Lehnprohst,  or  Official  Manager  for  fief- 
casualties,  in  tliat  country  :  —  all  which  proceed  from  tliis 
Battle  of  :Muhldorf.»  Battle  fought  on  the  28th  of  Septem- 
ber, 1322  :  —  eight  years  after  Bannochhum  ;  while  our  poor 
Edward  II.  and  England  with  him  were  in  such  a  welter  with 

*  Jedem  Mann  ein  Ey  (One  egg  to  every  man), 
Dem  frommen  Schweppermann  zuxy  (Two  to  the  excellent  Schwepper- 
mann) : 
Tradition  still  repeats  this  old  rhvme,  as  the  Kaiser's  Address  to  his  Army, 
or  liis  Head  Captains,  at  supper,  after  such  a  day's  work,  —  in  a  country 
already  eaten  to  tlie  bone. 

2  Kohler,  p.  288.  8  Reutsch,  p.  313  ;  Paul! ;  &c. 


Chap.  IX.  KAISER   LUDWIG   DER   BAIER.  125 

i;j'22. 

their  Spencers  and  their  Gavestons :  eight  years  after  Ban- 
nookburn,  and  four-and-twenty  before  Creey.  That  will  date 
it  for  English  readers. 

'Kaiser  Ludwig  reigned  some  twenty-five  years  more,  in  a 
busy  and  even  strenuous,  but  not  a  successful  way.  He  had 
good  windfalls,  too ;  for  example,  Brandenburg,  as  Ave  shall 
see.  He  made  friends ;  reconciled  himself  to  his  Brother 
Kur-Pfalz  and  junior  Cousinry  there,  settling  handsomely, 
and  with  finality,  the  debatable  points  between  them.  Ene- 
mies, too,  he  made  ;  especially  Johann  the  Luxemburger,  King 
of  Bohemia,  on  what  ground  will  be  seen  shortly,  who  became 
at  last  inveterate  to  a  high  degree.  But  there  was  one  su- 
premely sore  element  in  his  lot :  a  Pope  at  Avignon  to  whom 
he  could  by  no  method  make  himself  agreeable.  Pope  who 
put  him  under  ban,  not  long  after  that  Miihldorf  victory ;  and 
kept  him  so;  inexorable,  let  poor  Ludwig  turn  as  he  might. 
Ludwig's  German  Princes  stood  true  to  him ;  declared,  in 
soletun  Diet,  the  Pope's  ban  to  be  mere  spent  shot,  of  no  avail 
in  Imperial  Politics.  Ludwig  went  vigorously  to  Italy ;  tried 
si'tting  up  a  Pope  of  his  own;  but  that  did  not  answer,  nor 
of  course  tend  to  mollify  the  Holiness  at  Avignon. 

In  fine,  Ludwig  had  to  carry  this  cross  on  his  back,  in  a 
sorrowful  manner,  all  his  days.  The  Pope  at  last,  finding 
Johann  of  Bohemia  in  a  duly  irritated  state,  persuaded  him 
into  setting  up  an  Anti-Kaiser,  —  Johann's  second  Son  as 
Anti-Kaiser,  —  who,  though  of  little  account,  and  called 
Ffaffen-Kaiser  (l^arsons'  Kaiser)  by  the  public,  might  have 
brought  new  troubles,  had  that  lasted.  We  shall  see  some 
ultimate  glimpses  of  it  farther  on. 


126         imANDENBURG  AND  HOHEXZOLLERNS.     Rook  II. 


CHATTER   X. 

BRAXDEXBUUO    LAPSES    To    TIIK    KAISKK. 

Two  years  lx>fore  tlie  victory  at  Miihldorf,  a  bad  chance 
befell  in  Brandenburg:  the  Ascanicr  Line  of  Markgraves  or 
Electors  ended.  ^Magniloquent  Otto  with  the  Arrow,  Otto 
the  Short,  Hermann  the  Tall,  all  the  Ottos,  Hcrnianna  and 
others,  died  by  course  of  nature ;  nephew  Waldemar  him- 
self, a  stirring  man,  died  prematurely  (a.d.  J^UD),  and  left 
only  a  young  cousin  for  successor,  who  died  few  months 
after :  *  the  Line  of  All>ert  the  Bear  went  out  in  Brandenburg, 
They  had  lasted  there  about  two  hundred  years.  They  had 
not  been,  in  late  times,  the  successfulcst  Markgraves :  terri- 
tories much  split  up  among  younger  sons,  joint  Markgraves 
reigning,  Avhich  seldom  answers ;  yet  to  the  last  they  always 
made  stout  fight  for  themselves ;  walked  the  stage  in  a  high 
manner ;  and  surely  might  he  said  to  quit  it  creditably,  leaving 
such  a  Brandenburg  Ixdiind  them,  chiefly  of  their  making, 
during  the  Two  Centuries  that  had  been  given  them  before 
the  night  came. 

There  were  plenty  of  Ascanier  C(3usins  still  extant  in  those 
parts,  Saxon  dignitaries,  Anhalt  dignitaries,  lineal  descend- 
ants of  Albert  the  Bear ;  to  some  of  whom,  in  usual  times, 
Albert's  inheritance  would  naturally  have  been  granted.  But 
the  times  were  of  battle,  uncertainty,  contested  election :  and 
the  Ascaniers,  I  perceive,  had  rather  taken  Friedrich  of  Aus- 
tria's side,  which  proved  the  losing  one.  Kaisor  Lndwig  fler 
Baier  would  ai)point  none  of  these ;  Anti-Kaiser  Friedrich's 
appointments,  if  he  made  any,  could  be  only  nominal,  in  those 
distant  Northern  parts.  Lndwig,  after  his  victory  of  ]\riihL 
dorf,  preferred  to  consider  the  Electorate  of  Brandenburg  as 

1  September,  1320  (Paiili.  i   301).     Micli.ielis,  i  200-27" 


i 


CiiAP.  X.     IJRANDENBUKG  LAPSES  TO  THE  KAISER.         12T 

lapsed,  lying  vacant,  iingoverned  these  three  years ;  and  now 
become  the  Kaiser's  again.  Kaiser,  in  consequence,  gave  it 
to  his  Son ;  whose  name  also  is  Lndwig :  the  date  of  the 
Jnvestiture  is  1'3'23  (year  after  that  victory  of  Miihldorf) ;  a 
date  unfoi-tunate  to  Brandenburg.  We  come  now  into  a  Line 
of  Bavarian  Markgraves,  and  then  of  Liurewhurg  ones  ;  both 
of  which  are  of  fatal  significance  to  Brandenburg. 

The  Ascanier  Cousins,  high  Saxon  dignitaries  some  of  them, 
glopmed  mere  disappointment,  and  protested  hard  ;  but  could 
not  mend  the  matter,  now  or  afterwards.  Their  Line  went 
out  in  Saxony  too,  in  course  of  time ;  gave  place  to  the  Wet- 
ti'ns,  who  are  still  there.  The  Ascanier  had  to  be  content 
with  the  more  pristine  state  of  acquisitions,  —  high  pedigrees, 
old  castles  of  Ascanien  and  Ballenstadt,  territories  of  Anhalt 
or  what  else  thoy  had  ;  —  and  never  rose  again  to  the  lost 
lieiglit,  though  tlie  race  still  lires,  and  has  qualities  besides 
its  pedigree.  We  said  the  '*  Old  Dessauer,"  Leopold  Prince 
of  Anhalt-Dessau,  was  the  head  of  it  in  Friedrich  Wilhelm's 
time;  and  to  this  day  he  has  descendants.  Catharine  IL  of 
Russia  was  of  Anhalt-Zerbst,  a  junior  branch,  Albert  the 
Bear,  if  that  is  of  any  use  to  him,  has  still  occasionally  no- 
table representatives. 

Ludwig  junior,  Kaiser  Ludwig  the  Bavarian's  eldest  son, 
was  still  under  age  when  appointed  Kurfurst  of  Brandenburg 
i:i  1323  :  of  course  he  had  a  "  Stateholder"  (Viceregent,  Statt- 
haltcr) ;  then,  and  afterwards  in  occasional  absences  of  his, 
a  series  of  such.  Kaiser's  Councillors,  Burggraf  Friedrich  IV. 
among  them,  had  to  take  some  thought  of  Brandenburg  in  its 
new  posture.  Who  these  Brandenlmrg  Statthalters  were,  is 
heartily  indifferent  even  to  Dryasdust,  —  except  that  one  of 
them  for  some  time  was  a  Hohenzollern  :  which  circumstance 
Dryasdust  marks  with  the  due  note  of  admiration.  "  What 
he  did  there,"  Dryasdust  admits,  "is  not  written  anywhere;" 
—  good,  we  will  hope,  and  not  evil ;  — but  only  the  Diploma 
nominating  him  (of  date  1346,  not  in  Ludwig's  minority,  but 
many  years  after  that  ended  ^)  now  exists  by  way  of  record. 

1  Rentsch,  p.  323. 


128        BRANDENBURG  AND  IIOIIENZOLLERNS.       IViok  11. 

A  difficult  problem  he,  like  the  other  regents  and  viceregents, 
mast  have  had ;  little  dreaming  that  it  was  intrinsically  for 
a  grandson  of  his  own,  and  lung  line  of  grandsons.  The 
name  of  this  temporary  Statthalter,  the  first  Hohenzollern 
who  had  ever  the  least  concern  with  lirandcidmrg,  is  Burg- 
graf  Johann  II.,  eldest  Son  of  our  distinguished  Miihldorf 
friend  Friedrich  IV.  ;  and  Grandfather  (through  another 
Friedrifh)  of  P>urggraf  Friedrich  VI.,  —  which  last  gentle- 
man, as  will  be  seen,  did  doubtless  reap  the  sowings,  good 
and  bad,  of  all  manner  of  men  in  Brandenburg.  The  same 
Johann  II.  it  was  who  purchased  I'lassenburg  Castle  and 
Territory  (eheaj),  for  money  down),  where  the  Family  after- 
wards had  its  chief  residence,  llof,  Town  and  Territory, 
had  fallen  to  his  Father  in  those  jjarts  ;  a  gift  of  gratitude 
from  Kaiser  Ludwig:  —  most  of  the  Voigtlaud  is  now  Hohen- 
zollern. 

Kaiser  Ludwig  the  Bavarian  left  his  sons  Electors  of 
Brandenburg;  —  "Electors.  Kiir/iirsfs,"  now  Ix'comes  the  com- 
moner term  for  so  imporUmt  a  Countr}' ;  —  Electors  not  in 
easy  circumstances.  But  no  son  of  his  succeeded  Ludwig 
as  Kaiser,  —  successor  in  the  Bench  was  that  BfafFen-Kaiser, 
Johann  of  Bohemia's  son,  a  Lu-xemburger  once  more.  No 
son  of  Ludwig's ;  nor  did  any  descendant,  —  except,  after  four 
hundred  jears,  that  unfortunate  Kaiser  Karl  VII.,  in  Maria 
Theresa's  time.  He  was  a  descendant.  Of  whom  we  shall 
hear  more  than  enough.  The  unluckiest  of  all  Kaisers,  that 
Karl  VII. ;  less  a  Sovereign  Kaiser  than  a  bone  tlirown  into 
the  ring  for  certain  royal  dogs,  Louis  XV.,  George  II.  and 
others,  to  worry  about ;  —  watch-dogs  of  the  gods  ;  apt  some- 
times to  run  into  hunting  instead  of  warding. — We  will 
say  nothing  more  of  Ludwig  the  Baier,  or  his  posterity,  at 
present :  we  will  glance  across  to  Preussen,  and  see,  for  one 
moment,  what  the  Teutsch  Ritters  are  doing  in  their  new 
Century.  It  is  the  year  1330 ;  Johann  II.  at  Niirnberg,  as 
yet  only  coming  to  be  Burggraf,  by  no  means  yet  adminis- 
tering in  Brandenburg ;  and  Ludwig  junior  seven  years  old 
in  his  new  dignity  there. 


Cn.vr.  X.   BRANDENDUliG  LAPSES  TO  THE  KAISER.        120 

The  Teutsch  Ritters,  after  infinite  travail,  have  subdued 
heathen  Preussen ;  colonized  the  country  with  industrious  Ger- 
man immigrants  ;  banked  the  Weiclisel  and  the  Nogat,  subdu- 
ing their  quagmires  into  meadows,  and  their  waste  streams 
into  deep  ship-courses.  Towns  are  built,  Konigsberg  {King 
Uttocar's  foim),  Thoren  (Thorn,  Citi/  of  the  Gates),  with  many 
others  :  so  that  the  wild  population  and  the  tame  now  livetl 
tolerably  together,  under  Gospel  and  Liibeck  Law  ;  and  all 
was  nlougliing  and  trading,  and  a  rich  country  ;  which  had 
made  the  Teutsch  Kittrrs  rich,  and  victoriously  at  their  ease 
in  comparison.  But  along  with  riches  and  the  ease  of  victory, 
the  common  bad  consequences  had  ensued,  Ritters  given  up 
to  luxuries,  to  secular  ambitions ;  ritters  no  longer  clad  in 
austere  mail  and  prayer ;  ritters  given  up  to  wantonness  of 
mind  and  conduct ;  solemnly  vowing,  and  quietly  not  doing ; 
without  remorse  or  consciousness  of  wrong,  daily  eating  for- 
bidden fruit;  ritters  swelling  more  and  more  into  the  fatted-ox 
condition,  for  whom  there  is  but  one  doom.  How  far  tliey 
luul  carried  it,  here  is  one  symptom  that  may  teach  us. 

In  the  year  1330,  one  Werner  von  Orseln  was  Grand-master 
of  these  Ritters.  The  Grand-master,  who  is  still  usually  the 
best  man  they  can  get,  and  who  by  theory  is  sacred  to  them 
as  a  Grand-Lama  or  Pope  among  Cardinal-Lamas,  or  as  an 
Abbot  to  his  Monks,  —  Grand-master  Werner,  we  say,  had 
lain  down  in  Marienburg  one  afternoon  of  this  year  1330,  to 
take  his  siesta,  and  was  dreaming  peaceably  after  a  moderate 
repast,  when  a  certain  devil-ridden  mortal,  Johann  von  Endorf, 
one  of  his  Ritters,  long  grumbling  about  severity,  want  of 
promotion  and  the  like,  rushed  in  upon  the  good  old  man; 
ran  him  through,  dead  for  a  ducat  ;^ — and  consummated  a 
parricide  at  which  the  very  cross  on  one's  white  cloak  shud- 
ders !  Parricide  worse,  a  great  deal,  than  that  at  the  Ford  of 
Reuss  upon  one-eyed  Albert. 

We  leave  the  shuddering  Ritters  to  settle  it,  sternly 
vengeful ;  whom,  for  a  moment,  it  has  struck  broad-awake  to 
some  sense  of  the  very  questionable  condition  they  are  getting 
into. 

1  Voigt,  iv.  474,  482. 
VOL.  V.  & 


130        BRANDENBURG   AND   IIOIIENZOLLERNS.       R'^^  n. 

1345. 


ciiArTKU  xr. 

BAVAItlAN    KllCKLKSTS    IX    BKAXDENBURO. 

YouNQ  Linlwig  Kurfiirst  of  Brandenburg,  Kaiser  Ludwig's 
eldest  son,  having  come  of  years,  the  Tutors  or  Stattluilters 
went  home,  — not  wanted  exeept  in  cases  of  occasional  alv 
sence  henceforth ;  —  and  the  young  man  endeavored  to 
manage  on  his  own  strength.  His  success  was  but  indif- 
ferent ;  he  held  on,  however,  for  a  space  of  twenty  years, 
Ix'tter  or  worse.  '*  He  help«'d  King  Kdward  lit.  at  the  Siege 
of  Cambriy  (A.n.  1.*J.'{1)) ;  " '  whose  French  i«)litics  were  often 
connected  with  the  Kaiser's:  it  is  certain,  Kurfiirst  Ludwig 
"servenl  pt^rsonally  with  CtrMI  horse  [on  good  payment,  I 
conclude]  at  that  Sii-ge  of  (.'ambray  ;  "  —  and  probably  saw 
the  actual  Blat?k  Prince,  and  sometimes  dined  with  him,  a.s 
English  readi-rs  can  imagine.  In  Brandenburg  he  had  many 
cheeks  and  ditiicult  passages,  but  was  never  (piite  iM-aten  (»ut, 
which  it  was  easy  to  have  been. 

A  man  of  some  ability,  as  we  can  gatln'r,  though  not  of 
enough :  he  played  his  game  with  resolution,  not  without 
skill ;  but  from  the  first  the  cards  were  against  him.  His 
Father's  affairs  going  mostly  ill  were  no  help  to  his,  which 
of  th(>mselvcs  went  not  well.  The  Brandenburgers,  mindful 
of  their  old  Ascanier  sovereigns,  were  ill  affected  to  Ludwig 
and  the  new  Bavarian  sort.  The  Anhalt  Cousinry  gloomed 
irreconcilable  ;  were  never  idle,  digging  pitfalls,  raising  trou- 
bles. From  them  and  others  Kurfiirst  Ludwig  had  troubles 
enough  ;  which  were  fronted  b\-  him  really  not  amiss  ;  which 
we  wholly,  or  all  Init  wholly,  omit  in  this  place. 

A  Jlesiiscitated  Ascanier  ;  the  False  Waldemar. 

The  wickedest  and  worst  trouble  of  their  raising  wa.s  that 
of  the  resuscitated  "Waldemar  (a.d.  1.345)  :  "False  Waldemar," 
1  Michaclis,  i.  279. 


(MAP.  XI.  IJAVAKIAN  KUKFliliSTS  IN  BRANDP:NBU1{G.    131 

liiVo. 

as  he  is  now  calk'il  in  I'.randenburg  Books.  Waldemar  was 
till'  last,  or  as  good  as  tlu*  last,  of  the  Aseauier  Markgravos  ; 
and  he,  two  years  before  Ludwig  ever  saw  those  countiies, 
dit'd  in  his  bed,  twenty-tive  good  years  ago;  and  was  buried, 
and  seemingly  ended.  IJut  no  ;  after  twenty-tive  years,  Wal- 
demar reapiieai's:  "Not  buried  or  dead,  only  sham-buried, 
sham-<lead  ;  have  been  in  the  Holy  Land  all  this  while,  doing 
pilgrimage  and  penauce ;  and  am  come  to  claim  my  own 
again^ — whieli  strangers  are  much  misusing  !  "  * 

I'erkin  Warbeck,  Post-mortem  Kieiiard  11.,  Dimitri  of  Rus- 
sia, Martin  Guerre  of  the  Causes  Celebres :  it  is  a  common 
story  in  the  world,  and  needs  no  commentary  now.  Post- 
vtortim  Waldemar,  it  is  saiil,  was  a  Miller's  Man,  "  of  the  name 
of  Jakob  Kehkiek  ; "  who  used  to  be  about  the  real  Waldemar 
in  a  menial  eai)aoity,  and  luul  some  resemblance  to  him.  Ho 
showed  signets,  recounted  experiences,  which  luul  Ixdonged  to 
the  real  Waldemar.  Many  believed  in  his  pretension,  and 
took  arms  to  assert  it;  the  Keidi  being  in  much  internal 
battle  at  the  time ;  poor  Kaiser  Ludwig,  with  his  Avignon 
Popes  and  angry  Kings  Johann,  wading  in  deep  waters. 
Es[)ecially  the  disaffected  Cousinry,  or  Princes  of  Anhalt, 
believed  and  battled  for  Post-mortem  Waldemar ;  who  were 
thought  to  have  got  him  up  from  the  tirst.  Kurfiirst  Ludwig 
had  four  or  five  most  satl  years  with  him ;  —  all  the  worse  when 
the  ly'djfin-Kulser  (King  Johann's  son)  came  on  the  stage,  in 
the  course  of  them  (a.d.  134G),  and  Kaiser  Ludwig,  yielding 
not  indeed  to  him,  but  to  Death,  vanished  from  it  two  years 
after ;  ^  leaving  Kurfiirst  Ludwig  to  his  own  shifts  with  the 
Pfaffen-Kaiser.  Whom  he  could  not  now  hinder  from  suc- 
ceeding to  the  Reich.  He  tried  hard ;  set  up,  he  and  others, 
an  Anti-Kaiser  (Giinther  of  Schicai'tzhurj,  temporary  Anti- 
Kaiser,  whom  English  readers  can  forget  again)  :  he  bustled, 
battled,  negotiated,  up  and  down ;  and  ran  across,  at  one  time, 
to  Preussen  to  the  Teutsch  Ritters,  —  presumably  to  borrow 
money :  —  but  it  all  would  not  do.  The  Pfaffen-Kaiser 
carried   it,  in  the  Diet  and  out  of  the  Diet:    Karl  IV.  by 

'  Michaelis,  i.  279. 

*  Elected,  1314  ;  Miihldorf,  and  Election  complete,  1322  ;  died,  1347,  age  Ca 


182  lIKAM)KNIU:iiG   AM)   IKJllKNZoLLKKNS.     B<k,»  li. 

title ;  a  sorry  enough  Kaiser,  .ind  l)y  nature  an  enemy  of 
Liul  wig's. 

It  was  in  this  whirl  of  intricate  misventures  that  Kurfurst 
Ludwig  ha<l  to  deal  with  his  False  Waldeinar,  conjured  from 
the  de«'|»s  uimn  him,  like  a  new  guMin,  where  alre;uly  there 
were  plenty,  in  the  dan«'e  round  jioor  Lutlwig.  Of  which 
nearly  inextricable  goblin-<lauce ;  threatening  l{rand«>nburg, 
for  one  thing,  witli  :uinihilation,  and  yet  1<  I'landenburg 

alxstruseiy  towards  new  l»irth  and  higher  <i'  .  — how  will 

it  bo  |>ossiblo  (without  raising  new  ghosts,  in  a  sense)  to  give 
roa<l'  *   "      '  '         *      1  ?  —  Here,  flickering  on  the  edge 

of  ( .  :n',  is  a  iKX)r  Note  which  ]M>rhaps 

the  reader  had  better,  at  the  risk  of  su{K>rfluity,  still  in  part 
t;ike  along  with  him  :  — 

•'Kaiser  H«'nry  VII.,  who  died  of  sacramental  wine,  First 
of  the  Luxemburg  Kaisers,  left  Johann  still  a  Imy  of  fifteen, 
who  «'ould  not  Ix'come  the  second  of  them,  but  did  in  time  j»ro- 
duce  the  S«'c«»ud,  wh«)  again  j>roduced  the  Thirtl  and  Fourth. 

"<)ohiuin  was  alre;uly  King  of  Itohemia ;  the  im[)ortant 
young  gentleman,  Ott4X'^r's  grand.s<m,  whom  we  sjiw  •  mur- 
(hred  at  Olmiitz  none  yet  knows  by  whom,'  had  left  that 
throne  vac;int,  and  it  lajvsed  to  the  Kaiser ;  who,  the  Nation 
also  fav<iring,  duly  put  in  his  son  .Johann.  There  was  a  rum- 
jK'titor,  "Uuke  of  the  Tyrol,'  wlu)  claimed  on  lotwie  groun«Is; 
'My  wife  was  Aunt  of  the  youug  munlertul  King,*  said  he; 
*  when»fore  '  — !  Kais»»r,  and  Johann  aft4'r  him,  rebutted  this 
com|K»titor ;  but  he  h»ng  gave  s«»me  trouble,  having  great  wcjilth 
and  n>eans.  He  prmluced  a  Daughter,  Margiirct  Heiress  of 
the  Tyrol,  —  with  a  terrible  mouth  to  her  face,  and  none  of 
the  gentlest  hearts  in  her  body  :  —  that  was  ])erh;ij)8  his  prin- 
cij>al  feat  in  the  world.  He  died  1331  ;  \\m\  styled  himself 
•King  of  Bohemia*  for  twenty  years,  —  ever  since  l.'KJH  ;  — 
but  in  the  last  two  years  of  his  life  he  gave  it  up,  and  cea*<'d 
from  troubling,  having  come  to  a  beautiful  agreement  with 
Johann. 

"Johann,  namely,  wedded  his  eldest  Son  to  this  competitor's 
fine  Daughter  with  the  mouth  (Year  132^.)) :  '  In  this  manner 
do  not  Bohemia  ami  the  Tyrol  come  together  in  my  blood  and 


fiiw.  Xl.  IIAVAIMAN    Kl'UFL'KST.S  IN   UKAM  )1;MUKG.     l-i^ 

iu  yours,  ;iinl  Ixitli  of  us  are  made  men?'  said  the  two  eon- 
tnu-ting  j>aiti»'s.  —  Alas,  no:  the  comiMtitor  Dukt-,  fathor  of 
tlie  liride,  dii'd  some  two  years  after,  probably  with  diminished 
hoi)es  of  it ;  and  King  Johann  lived  to  see  the  hope  expire 
dismally  altogether.  There  came  no  children,  there  came  no  — 
In  fiu't  Margaret,  after  a  dozen  years  of  wt-dlock,  in  unpleasant 
eircumstiinces,  broke  it  off  as  if  by  explosion  ;  took  herself  and 
hrr  Tyrol  irrrviH-ably  over  to  Kaiser  Ludwig,  (piite  away  from 
King.Iohann,  —  who,  his  hopes  of  the  Tyrol  expiring  in  such 
disirtal  manner,  was  thenceforth  the  bitter  enemy  of  Ludwig 
and  what  held  «»f  him." 

Tyrol  explosion  w;is  in  1','A'J.  And  now,  keeping  these 
]>reliminary  dates  and  outlines  in  mind,  we  shall  understand 
the  big-m<>uth«d  I^idy  U'tter,  and  the  consequences  of  her  in 
tin-  wurlil. 

MiU-ijarct  with  (Jn    l*oueh-mouth. 

^Vllat  i)riucipally  raised  this  dance  of  the  devils  round  poor 
Liltlwig,  I  i)erceive,  was  a  marriage  he  liad  made,  three  years 
U'fore  WaldiMuar  emerg»*d  ;  of  which,  were  it  oidy  for  the  sidie 
of  the  liride's  name,  some  nu-ntion  is  jK-rmissible.  Margaret 
of  the  T>Tol,  commonly  called,  by  contemijoraries  and  pos- 
terity, Maultitsrhe  (ilouthpoke,  I'ockft-mouth),  she  wa.s  the 
bride:  —  marriage  done  at  Innspruck,  \'SA'2,  under  furtherani^e 
of  father  Ludwig  the  Kaiser: — such  a  mouth  as  we  can  fancy, 
and  a  chara4-ter  corresjxjnding  to  it.  This,  which  seemed  to 
the  two  Ludwigs  a  very  compiest  of  the  golden-tleece  unih-r 
conditions,  proved  the  beginning  of  their  worst  days  to  both 
of  them. 

Not  a  lovely  bride  at  all,  this  Maultasche ;  who  is  verging 
now  towards  middle  life  withal,  and  has  had  enough  to  cross 
her  in  the  world.  W:is  already  married  thirteen  years  ago ; 
not  wisely  nor  by  any  means  too  well.  A  terrible  dragon  of 
a  woman.  Has  been  in  nameless  domestic  quarrels ;  in  wars 
and  sieges  with  rebellious  vassals ;  claps  you  an  iron  cap  on 
her  head,  and  takes  the  field  when  need  is :  furious  she-bear 
of  the  Tyrol.  But  she  has  immense  possessions,  if  wanting 
in  female  charms.     She  came  by  mothers  from  that  Duke  of 


134        BKANDENIJlKi;   AND   IKHIENZULLEKNS.       U<...k  Ii. 

1346. 

Meran  whom  wc  saw  pot  his  death  (for  cause),  in  the  Plassen- 
burj^  a  liuiulred  yi-urs  ago.'  JIlt  aiict'.stur  wa.s  Hu.sliuiul  to  an 
Aunt  of  tliat  hoiui«'i«led  Duke :  from  kiui,  iiriucipally  from 
him,  .she  inherits  the  Tyrol,  Carinthia,  Styria;  is  herself  au 
only  child,  the  Lust  of  a  line:  hugest  Heiress  now  going.  So 
that,  in  spite  of  the  mouth  and  humor,  she  has  nut  wanted 
for  wooers,  —  esixjcially  prudent  Fathers  wooing  her  for  their 
sons. 

In  her  Father's  lifetime,  Johann  King  of  Ilohemia,  always 
awake  to  such  symptoms  of  things,  and  having  very  peculiar 
interests  in  this  e;ise,  courted  and  got  her  for  his  C'rown- 
i'rinee  (;us  we  ju.st  saw),  a  youth  of  great  outlooks,  outlooks 
towards  Kai.sership  itself  |)erhap8 ;  to  whom  she  was  wedded, 
thirtei-n  years  ago,  and  duly  brought  the  Tyrol  for  Ileritagi!: 
Itiit  with  the  worst  results.  lleiit;ige,  namely,  e«iuld  not  be 
had  witlumt  strife  with  Austria,  which  likewise  hsul  claims. 
Far  worse,  the  marriage  itself  went  awry:  .Tohann's  Crown- 
J'rinee  wius  "a  soft-natured  Herr,"  say  the  lUK>ks :  why  bring 
your  big  slie-bi'ar  iuto  a  \xx)T  deer's  den  ?  Enough,  the  mar- 
riage came  to  nothing,  except  to  huge  brawlings  far  enough 
away  from  us :  ami  Marg;iret  Poueh-moiith  has  now  divorced 
her  liohemian  Crown-Prince  as  a  Nullity ;  and  again  weds,  on 
similar  terms,  Kai.ser  Ludwig's  son,  our  Brandenburg  Kur- 
finst,  —  who  hojH's  jw.ssibly  that  A^  now  may  succeed  as  Kaiser, 
on  the  strength  of  his  Father  and  of  the  Tyrol.  Which  turned 
out  far  otherwise. 

The  marriage  was  done  in  the  Church  of  Innspruck,  loth 
February,  1342  (for  we  love  to  be  particular),  "Kaiser  Lud- 
wig,"  hapjjy  man,  ''and  many  Princes  of  the  Empire,  looking 
on  ;  "  little  thinking  what  a  coil  it  would  prove.  "  At  the  high 
altar  she  stript  off  her  veil,"  symbol  of  wifehood  or  widow- 
hood," and  jiut  on  a  junrffcrnkninz  (maiden's-garland),''  sym- 
bolically testifying  how  hapi»y  Ludwig  junior  still  was.  They 
had  a  son  by  and  by  ;  but  their  course  otherwise,  and  indeed 
this-wise  too,  was  much  checkered. 

King  Johann,  seeing  the  Tyrol  gone  in  this  manner,  gloomed 
terribly  upon  his  Crown-Prince ;  flung  him  aside  as  a  Nullity, 

»  Antea,  p.  102. 


CnAi-.XI.  liAVAKIAN  KFRFURSTS  I\  RRANDENRURG.    135 
ia40. 

"  Go  to  Moravia,  out  of  sight,  ou  an  apanage,  you ;  l)e  Crown- 
Prince  no  longer  !  "  —  And  took  to  tigliting  Kaiser  Ludwig  ; 
colleagued  diligently  with  the  hostile  I'ope,  with  the  King 
.of  Fnuice;  intrigued  and  colleagued  far  and  wide;  swearing 
by  every  method  everlasting  enmity  to  Kaiser  Ludwig;  and 
set  up  his  son  Karl  as  PfalTcn-Kaiser.  Nay,  jierhaps  he  was 
at  the  bottom  of  J'<)sf-<>f>lt  Waldtniar  too.  In  brief,  he  raised, 
he  mainly,  this  devils'-danee,  in  which.  Kaiser  Ludwig  having 
died,  poor  Kurfiirst  Ludwig,  with  Maultivsche  hanging  on  hiin, 
is  sometimes  near  his  wits'  end. 

Johann's  poor  Crown-Prince,  finding  matters  take  this  turn, 
retired  into  Md/mn  (.Moravia)  as  bidden;  "Margrave  t)f  Miih- 
ren;"'  and  i)4'a<'eably  ;uljusted  himself  to  his  charaeter  of  Nul- 
lity and  to  the  loss  of  Maultasche;  —  chose,  for  the  rest,  a  new 
I'rincess  in  wedlock,  witli  more  moderate  dimensions  of  mouth  ; 
and  did  produce  sous  autl  daughters  on  a  fresh  score.  Pro- 
duced, among  others,  one  Jobst,  his  successor  in  the  apanage 
or  Margrafdom;  who,  as  Joltst,  or  Jodocus.  of  Mii/m'ii,  maili; 
some  noise  for  himself  in  the  next  generation,  and  will  turn 
up  again  in  reference  to  Brandenburg  in  this  History. 

As  for  Margaret  Pouch-mouth,  she,  with  her  new  Husband 
as  with  her  old,  continued  to  have  troubles,  pretty  much  a.s  the 
sparks  fly  upwards.  She  had  fierce  siegings  after  this,  and 
exj)losive  procedures,  —  little  short  of  Monk  Schwartz,  who 
was  just  inventing  gunpowder  at  the  time.  We  cannot  hope 
she  lived  in  Elysian  harmony  with  Kurfiirst  Ludwig;  —  the 
reverse,  in  fact ;  and  oftenest  with  the  whole  breadth  of  Ger- 
many between  them,  he  in  Brandenburg,  she  in  the  Tyrol. 
Nor  did  Ludwig  junior  ever  come  to  be  Kaiser,  as  his  Father 
and  she  had  hoped ;  on  the  contrary,  King  Johann  of  Bohe- 
mia's people,  —  it  was  they  that  next  got  the  Kaisership  and 
kept  it ;  a  new  provocation  to  Maultasche. 

Ludwig  and  she  hatl  a  son,  as  we  said;  Prince  of  the  Tyrol 
and  appendages,  titular  Margraf  of  Miihren  and  much  else,  by 
nature  :  but  alas,  he  died  about  ten ;  a  precocious  boy,  — fancy 
the  wild  weeping  of  a  maternal  She-bear  !  And  the  Father  had 
already  died  ;  *  a  malicious  world  whispering  that  perhaps  she 
1  In  1361,  died  Kurfiirst  Ludwig;  1363,  the  Boy  ;  1366, Maultasche  herself. 


136       BRANDENHrH<;    AND    n(>IIENZ(>LLEKN'S.       Ii«"'k  II. 

1347. 

poisoned  them  both.  The  iiroiid  woman,  now  oUl  too,  pursed 
her  big  coarse  lips  together  at  such  rumor,  and  her  big  coarse 
soul, —  in  a  gloomy  s«orn  api)ealing  Ix'yond  the  world;  in  a 
sorrow  that  the  world  knew  not  of.  She  solenudy  settled  her 
Tyrol  and  apixMnlaijcs  upon  the  vVustrian  Archdukes,  who  were 
children  of  her  Mother's  Sister ;  whom  she  even  installed  into 
the  actual  government,  to  make  matters  surer.  This  done,  she 
retired  tt)  Vienna,  on  a  |>ension  from  them,  there  to  meditate 
and  pray  a  little,  liefore  Death  came;  a.s  it  did  now  in  a  short 
year  or  two.  Tyrol  and  the  apjx'udages  continue  with  Austria 
from  that  hour  to  this,  Marg;ir»'t's  little  l>oy  having  died. 

Margaret  of  the  rouch-mouth,  ruggeil  dragoon-major  of  a 
woman,  with  occAsional  steel  cnj)  on  her  hea<l,  and  ca])able  of 
swearing  terribly  in  Flanders  or  elsi- where,  riMn.alns  in  some 
measure  memoralde  to  me.  Comjian-d  with  romi):ulour,  Duch- 
ess of  Cleveland,  of  Kendal  and  other  high-rougi*«l  unfortunate 
females,  whom  it  is  not  jirojK'r  to  speak  of  without  necessity, 
though  it  is  often  ilone, —  Maultasche  rises  to  the  rank  of  His- 
torical. She  brought  the  Tyn)l  and  ap|>endage8  permanently 
to  Austria;  waa  near  leading  Hrandcnburg  to  annihilation, 
raising  such  a  goblin-<lance  n»und  Ludwig  and  it,  yet  ilid 
abstrusely  Icjul  Hnindenbiirg  tow.ards  a  far  other  goal,  which 
likewise  has  proved  permanent  for  it. 


ClIATTKK    XIT. 

BRANDENBURG  IN  KAISER  KARL's  TIMK;   EM)  OF  THE  BAVARIA.N 

KlRFi-RSTS. 

Kaiser  Lrnwio  died  in  I'^T,  while  the  False  Waldemar 
was  still  busy.  We  saw  Karl  IV.,  Johann  of  Bohemia's  second 
son,  come  to  the  Kaisership  thereupon,  Johann's  eldest  Nul- 
lity being  omitted.  This  Fourth  Karl,  —  other  three  Karls 
are  of  the  Charlemagne  set,  Karl  the  Bald,  the  Fat,  and  such 
like,  and  lie  under  our  horizon,  while  Charles  Fifth  is  of  a 
still   other  set.  and  known  to  everybody,  —  this  Karl   IV.  is 


rii.M-  XII.  BRANDKNBUKG  IN  KAISEK  KARL'S  TIME.       137 

1.U7 

the  Kaiser  who  discovered  the  Well  of  Kavldmd  (Bath  of 
Karl),  known  to  Tourists  of  this  day ;  and  made  the  Golden 
Hull,  which  I  forbid  all  Englishmen  to  take  for  an  agricul- 
tural Prize  Animal,  the  thing  being  far  other,  as  is  known  to 
several. 

There  is  little  farther  to  l>e  said  of  l\arl  in  lu'ichs-IIistory. 
An  \inesteemed  creature ;  who  strove  to  make  his  time  peace- 
abh>  in  this  world,  by  giving  from  the  Holy  Roman  Empire 
with  both  hands  to  every  bull-beggar,  or  re;uly-payer  who  ap 
plifd.  Sa<l  sign  what  the  Roman  Emj>ire  had  come  and  was 
coming  to.  The  Kaiser's  shield,  set  up  aloft  in  tlie  Roncalic 
IMain  in  Rarbarossa's  time,  intimated,  and  in  earnest  too,  "Ho, 
every  one  that  has  suffered  wrong!"  —  intimates  now,  "Ho, 
every  one  that  can  bidly  me,  or  has  money  in  his  poeket !  " 
Unadmiring  posterity  has  contirmetl  the  niekname  of  this  Karl 
IV. ;  and  calls  him  J'faff'rn-K(iij<n:  He  kept  mainly  at  Rrag, 
ready  for  receipt  of  cash,  and  holding  well  out  of  harm's  way. 
In  younger  years  he  luul  lH:'en  much  al)out  the  Erench  Court; 
in  Italy  he  had  suffered  troubles,  almost  assassinations;  much 
blown  to  and  fro,  i)oor  light  Nvret<'h,  on  the  chaotic  winds  of 
his  Time,  —  steering  towards  no  sUir. 

rlohanii.  King  of  Bohemia,  did  not  live  to  see  Karl  an  ac- 
knowledged Kaiser.  Old  Johann,  blind  for  some  time  back, 
had  perished  two  years  Ijefore  that  event ;  —  bequeathing  a 
Heraldic  Symbol  to  the  World's  History  and  to  England's,  if 
nothing  more.  Poor  man,  he  had  crusaded  in  Preussen  in  a 
brilliant  manner,  being  fond  of  fighting.  He  wrung  Silesia, 
gradually  by  purchase  and  entreaty  (pretio  ac  prec^),  from  the 
Polish  King ;  •  joined  It  firmly  to  Bohemia  and  Germany,  — 
unconsciously  waiting  for  what  higher  destinies  Silesia  might 
have.  For  Maultasche  and  the  Tyrol  he  brought  sad  woes  on 
Brandenburg ;  and  yet  was  unconsciously  leading  Branden- 
burg, by  abstruse  courses,  whither  it  had  to  go.  A  restless, 
ostentatious,  far-grasping,  strong-handed  man;  who  kept  the 
world  in  a  stir  wherever  he  was.  All  which  has  proved  voice- 
less in  the  "World's  memory;  while  the  casual  Shadow  of  a 

»  1327-1341  (Kohler,  p.  302). 


i:>8        BRANDENBURG  AND  IIOIIENZOLLERNS.        R"<'k  H. 

Feather  he  once  wore  has  proved  vocal  there.  World's  mem- 
ory is  very  whimsical  now  and  then. 

Being  much  implicated  with  the  King  of  France,  who  witli 
the  Pope  was  his  chief  stjiy  in  these  final  Anti-Ludwig  opera- 
tions, Jtihaiin  —  in  l.'Vl(»,  Pfaffcn-Kaiser  Karl  just  set  on  foot 
—  had  h'd  his  chivalry  into  France,  to  help  against  the  English 
Edwards,  who  were  then  very  intrusive  there.  Johann  was 
Itlind,  l)Jit  he  ha<l  good  ideas  in  war.  At  tlie  liattlc  i)f  Crecy, 
L'lth  August,  l.'i-t<),  he  atlvised  we  know  not  what ;  but  he  ac- 
tually fought,  though  stone-blind.  "Tied  his  bridle  to  that  of 
the  Knight  next  him;  and  charged  in,"  —  like  an  ohl  blind 
war-horse  kindling  nuully  at  the  sound  of  the  trumiu't;  —  and 
was  there,  by  some  English  lance  or  yew,  laid  low.  They 
fotind  him  on  tliat  tirld  of  carnag<'  (field  of  honor,  too,  in  a 
sort);  his  old  blind  face  looking,  very  blindly,  to  the  stars: 
on  his  shield  was  blazoned  a  Plume  of  three  ostrich-feathers 
with  '* /</i  (lien  (I  scrvt')  "  written  under:  —  with  which  em- 
blem every  English  reader  is  familiar  ewr  sine*' !  This  Editor 
himself,  in  very  tender  years,  noticed  it  on  the  Britannic  Maj- 
esty's war-<lrums  ;  and  had  to  iufpiire  of  children  of  a  larger 
growth  what  the  meaning  might  Ik?. 

That  is  all  I  had  to  say  of  King  Johann  and  his  *'  Lh  dien.^* 
Of  the  Lux(Muburg  Kaisers  (four  in  number,  two  sons  of  Karl 
still  to  come) ;  who,  except  him  of  the  sacramental  wine, 
with  "  Irh  (lien  "  for  son,  are  good  for  little ;  and  deserve  no 
memory  from  mankind  except  as  they  may  stick,  not  easily 
extricable.  to  the  history  of  nobler  men  :  —  of  them  also  I 
could  wish  to  be  silent,  but  must  not.  Must  at  least  explain 
how  they  came  in,  as  *'  Luxemburg  Kurfiirsts "  in  Branden- 
burg ;  and  how  they  went  out,  leaving  Brandenburg  not  anni- 
hilated, but  very  near  it. 

End  of  Jiesuseitati'd  Waldivnar  ;  K^irfi'irst  Ludici;y  sell ><  out. 

Imaginary  "Waldemar  being  still  busy  in  Brandenburg,  it 
was  natural  for  Kaiser  Karl  to  find  him  genuine,  and  keep 
up  that  goblin-dance  round  })Oor  Kurfiirst  Ludwig,  the  late 
Kaiser's  son,  by  no  means  a  lover  of  Karl's.      Considerable 


CiiA.-.  XII.  END  OF   Till-:   15A\AK1AN    KLUFL'liSTS.  130 

1349. 

support  was  maiuij^i^d  to  be  raised  for  Wuklenuir.  Kaiser 
Karl  regularly  infeoffed  hiiu  as  real  Kurfurst,  so  far  as  parch- 
ment could  do  it ;  and  in  case  of  his  decease,  says  Karl's 
diploma  farther,  the  Princes  of  Anhalt  shall  succeed,  —  Lud- 
wig  in  any  case  is  to  be  zero  henceforth.  War  followed,  or 
what  tluy  called  war:  much  confused  invading,  bickering  and 
throttling,  for  two  years  to  come.  "Mut;tof  the  Towns  de- 
clared for  Waldemar,  and  their  old  Anhalt  line  of  Margraves  :  " 
Lu<lwig  and  the  bavarian  sort  are  clearly  not  poi)ular  here. 
]judwig  held  out  strenuously,  however;  would  not  be  beaten. 
He  luul  the  King  of  Denmark  for  Urother-in-law ;  had  connec- 
tions in  the  Keich  :  perhaps  still  better  he  had  the  Jiiir/is- 
Jnaiijnin,  lately  his  Father'.^,  still  in  hand.  He  stood  obstin:ite 
siege  from  the  Kaiser's  people  and  the  Auhalters  ;  shouted-in 
Denmark  to  heljc  st;irted  an  Anti-Kaiser,  as  we  said,  —  tem- 
j)orary  Anti-Kaiser  Ciiinther  of  Schwartzburg,  whom  the  reader 
can  forget  a  second  tinu- :  —  in  brief,  Ludwig  contrived  to 
bring  Kaiser  Karl,  and  Imaginary  Waldemar  with  his  Au- 
halters, to  a  cpiietus  and  negotiation,  and  to  get  lirandenburg 
cleared  of  them.  Year  1341),  they  went  their  ways  ;  and  that 
devils'-dance,  which  luul  raged  tive  years  and  more  round  Lud- 
wig, wiis  fairly  got  laid  or  lulled  ag-ain. 

Imaginary  ^Valdema^,  after  some  farther  ineffectual  wrig- 
gliugs,  retired  altogether  into  private  life,  at  the  Court  of 
Dessau ;  and  happily  died  before  long.  Died  at  the  Court  of 
Dessau;  the  Anhalt  Cousins  treating  him  to  the  last  as  Head 
Representative  of  Albert  the  Bear,  and  real  Prince  Waldemar ; 
for  which  they  had  their  reasons.  Portraits  of  this  False 
Waldemar  still  turn  up  in  the  German  Print-shops  ;  *  and  repre- 
sent a  very  absurd  fellow,  umch  muffled  in  drapery,  mouth  jjar- 
tially  open,  eyes  wholly  and  widely  so,  —  never  yet  recovered 
from  his  astonishment  at  himself  and  things  in  general !  How 
it  fared  with  poor  Brandenburg,  in  these  chaotic  throttlings 
and  vicissitudes,  under  the  Bavarian  Kurfiirsts,  we  can  too 
well  imagine ;  and  that  is  little  to  what  lies  ahead  for  it. 

However,  in  that  same  year,  1349,  temporary  quietus  having 

^  In  Kloss  (  Vaterldndischp  Gemiilde,  ii.  29),  a  sorry  Compilation,  above  re- 
ferred to,  without  y^\xe  except  for  the  old  Excerpts,  &c.,  there  is  a  Copy  of  it 


140        JJKANDENBUKG   AND   IIUIIENZULLEUNS.        H v  ir. 

1.01. 

come,  Kurfiirst  Luthvig,  weury  of  the  matter,  gave  it  over  to 
his  iJrotlier :  **  Have  not  I  an  opuK-nt  MaulUusche,  Ciorgoa- 
Wife,  susceptihU'  to  kin<lness,  in  thr  Tyrol;  have  nut  I  in 
tlie  iCeich  rlst-where  n'soureus,  applianees  ?  "  thought  Kurfiirst 
Ludwig.  And  gave  the  thing  over  to  his  next  lirother. 
Brother  whos»'  nanu"  also  is  Liulw'nj  (iu>  their  Father's  also  luul 
been,  three  Ludwigs  at  once,  for  our  dear  Germans  shine  in 
noinenelature)  :  "Ludwig  the  Honum"  this  new  one;  —  the 
ehhr  P.rother,  our  a<(|uaintance,  Ix-ing  Luilwig  simply,  distin- 
guishahle  too  as  KnrjTu-st  Ludwig,  or  even  as  Ludwig  Stnior 
at  this  stage  of  the  affair.  KurfUrst  Ludwig,  therefore,  Year 
l.'Ul),  washes  his  hands  of  lirandenhurg  while  the  quietus 
huits;  retaining  only  the  Klectorship  and  Title;  ami  goes  his 
ways,  resolving  to  take  his  ease  in  liavaria  and  the  Tyrol 
thenceforth.  How  it  fared  with  him  there,  with  his  loving 
tiorgon  ami  hiiu,  we  will  not  ask  farther.  They  ha<l  always 
separate  houses  to  tly  to,  in  case  of  extremity  !  They  held  out, 
better  or  worse,  twelve  years  more;  and  Ludwig  left  his  little 
r>oy  still  surviving  him,  in  \'M\l. 

iSccuHil,  and  th,n  T/tinl  uinl  liii*t^  of  the  Bavarian  Kurfiirsts 
in  Brandinburj. 

In  llrandenburg,  the  new  Markgi-af  Ludwig,  who  we  say  is 
called  "  the  liunuin  "  {Liidwiij dir  Jiunicr,  having  Ik'cu  in  Home) 
to  distinguish  him,  continued  warring  with  the  Anarchies, 
fifteen  years  in  a  rather  tough  manner,  without  much  victory 
on  either  side ;  —  made  his  j)eacre  with  Kaiser  Karl  however, 
delivering  up  the  lieirhs-Insifjuiu  ;  and  tried  to  put  down  the 
domestic  Jobbers,  who  hatl  got  on  foot,  "many  of  them  per- 
sons of  quality ; ''  ^  till  he  also  died,  childless,  a.d.  13Go  ;  hav- 
ing been  Kurfiirst  too,  since  his  Brother's  death,  for  some  four 
years. 

Whereupon  Brandenburg,  Electorship  and  all  Titles  with 

it,  came  to  Otto,  third  son  of  Kaiser  Ludwig,  who  is  happily 

the  last  of  these  Bavarian  Electors.    They  were  an  unlucky  set 

of  Sovereigns,  not  hitherto  without  desert ;  and  the  unlucky 

1  MuJiaelid,  i.  282. 


cu.u.  Mil.      kukfOusts  in   HKANDEXBUKG.  141 

1373. 

Country  suffered  iiuich  under  tlieni.  Wy  far  the  unluckiest, 
and  by  far  the  worst,  was  this  Utto  ;  a  dissolute,  drinking, 
<ntirely  worthless  Herr ;  under  whom,  for  eight  years,  cou- 
lusiun  went  worse  confounded;  ;is  if  i)luin  Chaos  were  coming; 
and  Brandenburg  and  Otto  grew  tired  of  each  other  to  tlie 
last  degree. 

In  which  state  of  matters,  a.d.  1373,  Kaiser  I\arl  olTered 
Otto  a  trifle  of  ready  money  to  take  himself  away.  Otto  ac- 
2e^)tcd  greedily;  sold  his  Electorate  and  big  Mark  of  I'randen- 
ourg  tt)  Kaiser  Ivarl  fur  an  old  song, — -(K),0(X>  thalers  (al)ont 
A13i),iiO0,  and  only  Iialf  of  it  ever  paid^ ;  *  —  withdrew  to  his 
SSchloss  of  Wolfstt'in  in  liavaria;  and  there,  on  the  strength 
of  that  or  other  sums,  "  rolled  deep  as  possible  in  every  sort 
of  debauchery."  And  so  in  few  years  puddled  himself  to 
death  ;  foully  ending  the  1  bavarian  set  of  Kurfiirsts.  They 
had  lasted  lifty  years;  with  endless  trouble  to  the  Country 
aud  to  themselves;  and  with  such  mutual  prolit  as  we  have 
seen. 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

LUXEMBURG    KUUFURSTS    IX    BU.VNDENBUUG, 

If  Brandenburg  suffered  much  under  the  Bavarian  Kur- 
fiirsts for  Fifty  years,  it  was  worse,  and  approached  to  the 
state  of  worst,  under  the  Luxemburgers,  who  lasted  for  some 
Forty  more.  Ninety  years  of  anarchy  in  all ;  which  at  length 
brought  it  t-o  great  need  of  help  from  the  Fates  !  — 

Karl  IV.  made  his  eldest  Boy  Wenzel,  still  only  about 
twelve.  Elector  of  Brandenburg ;  ^  Wenzel  shall  be  Kaiser 
and  King  of  Bohemia,  one  day,  thinks  Karl;  —  which  actu- 
ally came  to  pass,  and  little  to  Wenzel's  profit,  by  and  by. 
In  the  mean  while  Karl  accompanied  him  to  Brandenburg ; 
which  country  Karl  liked  much  at  the  money,  and  indeed  ever 
after,  in  his  old  days,  he  seemed  rather  to  busy  himself  with 
it.     He  assembled  some  kind  of  Stdnde  (States)  twice  over  j 

'  Michaelis,  i.  2S3.  2  1373  (i,orn  1361). 


142  imANDENBURG   AND   JIUHEXZoLLKUNS.     IkniK  II. 

1373. 

got  the  Country  "incorporated  ^vitll  Uohemiii"  by  them, 
and  made  tight  and  handy  so  far.  Brandenburg  shall  rest 
from  its  woes,  and  be  a  silent  portion  of  Bohemia  hence- 
forth, thinks  Karl,  —  if  the  Heavens  so  plea.se.  Karl,  a  futile 
Kaiser,  would  fain  have  done  something  to  ''  encourage  trade  " 
in  Brandenburg;  though  one  sees  not  what  it  was  he  did, 
if  anything.  He  built  the  Schloss  of  Tangernuinde,  and  often- 
est  lived  there  in  time  coming;  a  quieter  platie  than  even 
Brag  for  him.  In  short,  he  appears  to  have  fancied  his  cheap 
l*urch;us(',  and  to  have  cheered  his  })Oor  old  futile  life  with 
it,  as  with  one  thing  that  had  been  successful.  I'oor  old 
creature:  he  had  lx>en  a  Kaiser  on  false  terms,  "Ho  every 
one  that  dare  bully  me,  or  that  h;us  money  in  his  pocket ;  "  — 
a  Kaiser  that  couUl  not  but  be  futile  !  In  five  years'  time 
lie  died ;  *  and  doubtless  w:\s  regretted  in  Brandenburg  and 
even  in  the  Kcich,   in  comparison  with  what  came  next. 

In  Bramlenburg  he  left,  instead  of  one  indifferent  or  even 
bad  governor  steadily  tied  to  the  place  and  in  earnest  to  make 
the  best  of  it,  a  fluctuating  series  of  governors  holding  loose, 
and  not  in  earnest ;  which  was  infinitely  worse.  These  did 
not  try  to  govern  it;  sent  it  to  the  I'awubroker,  to  a  fluc- 
tuating series  of  Pawnbrokers ;  under  whom,  for  the  next 
live-and-thirty  years,  Brandenburg  Utsted  all  the  fruits  of 
Kon-government,  that  is  to  say.  Anarchy  or  Government  by 
the  rawnbn>ker;  and  sank  faster  and  fiister,  towards  anni- 
hilation iv3  it  seemed.  That  was  its  fate  under  the  Luxem- 
burg Kurfiirsts,  who  made  even  the  Bavarian  and  all  others 
be  regretted. 

One  tiling  Kaiser  Karl  did,  which  ultimately  proved  the 
saving  of  Brandenburg :  made  friendship  with  the  Hohenzol- 
lern  Burggi-aves.  These,  Johann  II.,  temporary  "  Stattlmlter-^ 
dohann,  and  his  Brother,  who  were  Co-regents  in  the  Family 
Domain,  when  Karl  first  made  appearance,  —  had  stood  true 
to  Kaiser  Ludwig  and  his  Son,  so  long  as  that  play  lasted 
ftt  all ;  nay  one  of  these  Burggraves  was  talked  of  as  Kaiser 

^  King  of  Bohemia,  1346,  on  his  Father's  death  ;  Kaiser  (acknowledged  od 
Ludwig  the  Baier's  death),  134"  ;  died,  1378,  age  02. 


CiiA.'.  XlU.        KURFUKSTS  IN   BRANDENBURG.  143 

1373. 

after  Ludwig's  death,  but  had  the  wisdom  not  to  try.  Kaiser 
Ludwig  being  dead,  they  still  would  not  recognize  the  Pfaffen- 
Ku'iser  Karl,  but  held  gloomily  out.  So  that  Karl  had  to 
march  in  force  into  the  Xiirnberg  country,  and  by  great 
promises,  by  considerable  gifts,  and  the  "  example  of  the 
other  Princes  of  the  Empire,"  *  brought  them  over  to  do 
homage. 

After  which,  their  progress,  and  that  of  their  successor 
(Johann's  son,  Friedrich  V.),  in  the  grace  of  Karl,  was  some- 
tliing  extraordinary.  Karl  gave  his  Daughter  to  this  Fried- 
rich  V.'s  eldest  Son  ;  appointed  a  Daughter  of  Friedrich's  for 
his  own  Second  Prince,  the  famed  Sigismuud,  famed  that  is 
to  be,  —  which  latter  match  did  not  take  effect,  owing  to 
changed  outlooks  after  Karl's  death.  Nay  there  is  a  Deed  still 
extant  about  marrying  children  not  yet  born  :  Karl  to  jiro- 
duce  a  Princess  within  five  years,  and  Burggraf  Friedrich  V. 
a  Prince,  for  that  i>urpose!''  But  the  Burggraf  never  liad 
another  Prince ;  though  Karl  produced  the  due  Princess,  and 
was  ready,  for  his  share.  Unless  indeed  this  strange  eager- 
looking  Document,  not  dated  in  the  old  Books,  may  itself  re- 
late to  the  above  wedding  which  did  come  to  pass  ?  —  Years 
before  that,  Karl  had  made  his  much-esteemed  Burggraf 
Friedrich  V.  "  Captain-General  of  the  Reich  ;  "  "  Imperial 
Vicar  "  (Substitute,  if  need  were),  and  much  besides ;  nay  had 
given  him  the  Landgraviate  of  Elsass  (Alsace), — so  far  as 
lay  with  him  to  give,  —  of  which  valuable  country  this  Fried- 
rich had  actual  possession  so  long  as  the  Kaiser  lived.  "  Best 
of  men,"  thought  the  poor  light  Kaiser ;  "  never  saw  such  a 
man  !" 

^Vhich  proved  a  salutary  thought,  after  all.  The  man  had 
a  little  Boy  Fritz  (not  the  betrothed  to  Karl's  Princess),  still 
chasing  butterflies  at  Gulmbach,  when  Karl  died.  In  this 
Boy  lie  new  destinies  for  Brandenburg :  towards  him,  and  not 
towra-ds  annihilation,  are  Karl  and  the  Luxemburg  Kurfiirsts 
and  Pawnbrokers  unconsciously  guiding  it. 

1  "  Hallow-eve,  1347,  on  the  Field  of  Niimberg,"  Agreement  was  come  to 
(Rent«ch,  p.  326). 
*  Rentsch,  p.  336. 


144  BKANDENBURG   AND   IIOHENZOLLEKNS.     H^h.k  ii. 

1J78. 


CllAl'TEU    XIV. 


BUEGOUAF     F1UKI»UI«  II    VI. 


Karl  left  three  young  Sons,  "Wenzel,  Sigismund,  Johann ; 
and  also  a  certain  Nephew  mucli  oUUt  ;  all  of  \s  1k»iii  now  more 
or  less  concern  us  in  this  unfortunate  History. 

Wenzel  the  eldest  Son,  heritable  KurfUrst  of  J?randenburg 
as  well  as  King  of  Bohemia,  was  as  yet  only  seventeen,  who 
nevertheless  got  to  be  Kaiser,*  —  and  wt'iit  wiildy  lUitray,  j>oor 
soul.  The  Nephew  was  no  other  than  Margrave  Jobst  of 
Moravia  (son  of  Maultasche's  late  Nullity  there),  now  in  the 
vigor  of  his  years  and  a  stirring  man  :  to  him,  for  a  time,  the 
chief  management  in  Brandenburg  fell,  in  these  circumstances. 
"Wenzel,  still  a  minor,  and  already  Kaiser  and  King  (»f  Bohe- 
mia, gave  uj)  Brandenburg  to  his  two  young»-r  Brothers,  most 
of  it  to  Sigismund,  with  a  cutting  for  Johann,  to  help  their 
apanages;  and  ajiplied  his  own  powers  to  govern  the  Holy 
Roman  Empire,  at  that  early  stage  of  life. 

To  govern  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  poor  soul ;  —  or  rather 
"to  drink  iK'er,  and  dance  with  the  girls  ;  "  in  which,  if  defec- 
tive in  other  things,  Wenzel  had  an  eminent  talent.  He  was 
one  of  the  worst  Kaisers,  and  the  least  victorious  on  record. 
He  would  attend  to  nothing  in  the  Keich  ;  "  the  Brag  white 
beer,  and  girls  ''  of  various  complexion,  being  much  preferable, 
as  he-  was  heard  to  say.  He  had  to  fling  his  poor  Queen's 
Confessor  into  the  River  Moldau,  —  Johann  of  Nepomuk, 
Saint  so  called,  if  he  is  not  a  fable  altogether  ;  whose  Statue 
stands  on  Bridges  ever  since,  in  those  parts.  Wenzel's  Bohe- 
mians revolted  against  him ;  put  him  in  jail ;  and  he  broke 
prison,  a  boatman's  daughter  helping  him  out,  with  adven- 
tures. His  Germans  were  disgusted  with  him ;  deposed  him 
1  137S,  on  his  Father's  death. 


OiAi'.  XIV.      .SIUISMUND    AND    I'lli:    lUKlUiliAVES.  145 

137S. 

from  the  Kaisership ; '  chose  Rupert  of  tlie  I'falz ;  ;iii<l  then 
after  llupert's  death,*  chose  Weuzel's  own  Brother  Sigismuud, 
iu  Ids  stead, — left  Weuzel  to  jumble  about  in  his  native  Bo- 
ln'mian  element,  as  King  there,  for  nineteen  years  longer,  still 
breaking  pots  to  a  ruinous  extent. 

He  ended,  by  apoplexy,  or  sudden  spasm  of  the  heart ;  terri- 
ble Zisca,  as  it  were,  killing  him  at  second-hand.  For  Zisca, 
stout  and  furious,  blind  of  one  eye  and  at  last  of  both,  a  kind 
of  human  rhinoceros  driven  mad,  had  risen  out  of  the  ashes  of 
mifrdered  Huss,  and  other  bad  l*apistic  doings,  in  the  interim  ; 
and  was  tearing  up  the  world  at  a  huge  rate.  khinoceros 
Zisca  was  on  the  Weissenberg,  or  a  still  nearer  Hill  of  I'rag 
since  called  Zusca-Berg  (Zisca  Hill)  :  and  none  durst  whisi)er  of 
it  to  the  King.  A  .servant  waiting  at  dinner  inadvertently  let 
slip  the  word  :  —  "  Zisca  there  ?  Deny  it,  slave  I  "  cried  Weu- 
zel frantic.  Slave  durst  not  deny.  Wenzel  drew  his  sword 
to  run  at  him,  but  fell  down  dead :  that  w;us  the  last  i)ot 
broken  by  Wenzel.  Tlie  hapless  royal  ex-imperial  Thantiism 
self-broken  in  this  luanuer.^  I'oor  soul,  he  came  to  the  Kaiser- 
ship too  early  ;  was  a  thin  violent  creature,  sensible  to  the 
charms  and  horrors  of  created  objects  ;  and  had  terrible  rhi- 
noceros Ziscas  and  unruly  liorned-cattle  to  drive.  He  was  one 
of  the  wt)rst  Kaisers  ever  known,  —  could  have  done  Opera- 
singing  much  better  ;  —  and  a  sad  sight  to  Bohemia.  Let  us 
leave  him  there  :  he  was  never  actual  Elector  of  Brandenburg, 
having  given  it  up  in  time ;  never  did  any  ill  to  that  poor 
Country. 

Sigismund  is  Kurfiirst  of  Brondenhurg^  but  is  King  of 
Hungary  also. 

The  real  Kurfiirst  of  Bram^lenburg  all  this  while  was  Sigis- 
mund Wenzel's  next  Brother,  under  tutelage  of  Cousin  Jobst 
or  otherwise  ;  —  real  and  yet  imaginary,  for  he  never  himself 
governed,  but  always  had  Jobst  of  Miihren  or  some  other  iu 
his  place  there.     Sigismund,  as  above  said,  was  to  have  mar- 

1  25th  May,  1400  (Kohler,  p.  331).  2  1410  (ib.  p.  336). 

8  30th  July,  1419  (Ilonnayr,  vii.  119).  » 

VOL.  V.  10 


146  BRANDENBURG   AND   HOHENZOLLERNS.    B^^k  I!. 

ried  a  Daughter  of  IJurggraf  Frieclrich  V.  ;  and  he  Avas  liim- 
self,  as  was  the  young  kidy,  well  inclined  to  this  arrangement. 
But  the  old  people  being  deiul,  and  some  offer  of  a  King's 
Daughter  turning  up  for  Sigismund,  Sigismund  broke  off ;  and 
took  the  King's  Daughter,  King  of  Hungary's,  —  not  without 
regret  then  and  afterwards,  as  is  believed.  At  any  rate,  the 
Hungarian  charmer  proved  a  wife  of  small  merit,  and  a  Hun- 
garian successor  she  had  was  a  wife  of  light  conduct  even; 
Hungarian  charmers,  and  Hungarian  affairs,  were  much  other 
than  a  comfort  to  Sigismund. 

As  for  the  disai)pointed  Princess,  Burggraf  Friedrich's 
Daughter,  she  said  nothing  that  we  hear ;  silently  became  a 
Kun,  an  Abbess :  and  through  a  long  life  looked  out,  with  her 
thoughts  to  herself,  ui»on  the  loud  whirlwind  of  tilings,  where 
Sigismund  (oftenest  like  an  imponderous  rag  of  conspicuous 
color)  was  riding  and  tossing.  Her  two  Brothers  also,  joint 
Burggraves  after  their  Father's  death,  seemed  to  have  recon- 
ciled themselves  without  difficulty.  The  elder  of  them  was 
already  Sigismund's  Brother-in-law  ;  married  to  Sigismund's 
and  Wenzel's  sister,  —  by  such  predestination  as  we  saw. 
Burggraf  Johann  HI.  wiis  the  name  of  this  one:  a  stout 
lighter  and  manager  for  many  years;  much  liked,  and  looked 
to,  by  Sigismund.  As  indeed  were  both  the  Brothers,  for  that 
matter ;  always,  together  or  in  succession,  a  kind  of  right- 
hand  to  Sigismund.  Friedrich  the  younger  Burggraf,  and  ulti- 
mately the  survivor  and  inheritor  (Johann  having  left  no  sons), 
is  the  famed  Burggraf  Friedrich  VI.,  the  last  and  notablest 
of  all  the  Burggraves.  A  man  of  distinguished  im])ortance, 
extrinsic  and  intrinsic ;  chief  or  among  the  very  cliief  of  Ger- 
man public  men  in  his  time;  —  and  memorable  to  Posterity, 
and  to  this  History,  on  still  other  grounds !  But  let  us  not 
anticipate. 

Sigismund,  if  apanaged  with  Brandenburg  alone,  and 
wedded  to  his  first  love,  not  a  King's  Daughter,  might  have 
done  tolerably  well  there ;  —  better  than  ^Venzel,  with  the 
Empire  and  Bohemia,  did.  But  delusive  Fortune  threw  her 
golden  apple  at  Sigismund  too ;  and  he,  in  the  wide  high 
world,  had  to  play  strange  pranks.     His  Father-in  law  died  in 


( HAi'.  XIV.  BKANDEN13U1W    IN   PAWN.  147 

l;J87. 

Hungary,  Sigismund's  first  wife  his  only  child.  Father-in- 
law  bequeathed  Hungary  to  Sigismund  :  ^  who  plunged  into  a 
strange  sea  thereby;  got  troubles  without  number,  beatings 
not  a  few,  —  and  had  even  to  take  boat,  and  sail  for  his  life 
down  to  Constantinople,  at  one  time.  In  which  sad  adventure 
Burggraf  Johann  escorted  him,  and  as  it  were  tore  him  out 
by  the  hair  of  the  head.  These  troubles  and  adventures  lasted 
many  years ;  in  the  course  of  which,  Sigismund,  trying  all 
manner  of  friends  and  expedients,  found  in  the  lUirggraves 
of  Niirnberg,  Johann  and  Friedrich,  with  their  talents,  pos- 
sessions and  resources,  the  main  or  almost  only  sure  support 
he  got. 

No  end  of  troubles  to  Sigismund,  and  to  Brandenburg 
through  him,  from  this  sublime  Hungarian  legacy  !  Like  a 
remote  fabulous  gi)ldeu-fleece,  which  you  have  to  go  and  con- 
quer first,  and  which  is  worth  little  when  conquered.  Before 
ever  setting  out  (a.d.  1387),  Sigismund  saw  too  clearly  he 
would  have  cash  to  raise :  an  operation  he  had  never  done 
with,  all  his  life  afterwards.  He  pawned  Brandenburg  to 
Cousin  Jobst  of  Miihren  ;  got  "  20,000  Bohemian  gulden,"  — 
I  guess,  a  most  slender  sum,  if  Dryasdust  would  but  interpret 
it.  This  was  the  beginning  of  Pawnings  to  Brandenburg ; 
of  which  when  will  the  end  be  ?  Jobst  thereby  came  into 
Braudenbui'g  on  his  own  right  for  the  time,  not  as  Tutor  or 
Guardian,  which  he  had  hitherto  been.  Into  Brandenburg ; 
and  there  was  no  chance  of  repayment  to  get  him  out  again. 

Cousin  Jobst  has  Brandenburg  in  Pawn. 

Jobst  tried  at  first  to  do  some  governing;  but  finding  all 
very  anarchic,  grew  unhopeful ;  took  to  making  matters  easy 
for  himself.  Took,  in  fact,  to  turning  a  penny  on  his  pawn- 
ticket; alienating  crown  domains,  winking  hard  at  robber- 
barons,  and  the  like ;  —  and  after  a  few  years,  went  home 
to  Moravia,  leaving  Brandenburg  to  shift  for  itself,  under 
a  Statthalter  {Viceregent,  more  like  a  hungry  land-steward), 
whom  nobody  took  the  trouble  of  respecting.  Eobber-castles 
1 1387  (Sigismund's  age  then  twenty). 


148        I;K.\.N1)I:NIJUKG   and   lloIlENZOlJ.EliNS.        BO..K  II. 

tiuuri-slu'd  ;  all  else  decayed.  No  highway  not  ujisale ;  many 
a  Tuipin  with  sixteen  quarters,  and  styling  liimself  J'Jdlc  llerr 
(noble  (Jentleniau),  took  to  "  living  from  the  saildle  :  "  —  what 
are  Ilaniburg  jiedlers  nuule  for  but  to  be  robbed  ? 

The  Towns  sulh-red  nuieh  ;  any  trade  they  might  have  had, 
going  to  wreitk  in  this  manner.  Not  to  speak  of  private 
feuds,  which  abounded  ad  /Unfum.  Neighlajring  potentates. 
Archbishop  of  Alagileburg  and  others,  struck  in  also  at  discre- 
tion, as  they  ha<^l  gratlually  got  accustomed  to  do,  and  snapped 
away  (a/tzwarkten)  some  convenient  bit  of  territory,  or,  more 
legitimately,  they  came  across  to  coerce,  at  their  own  hand, 
this  or  the  other  Edle  Ilerr  of  the  Turpin  sort,  whom  there 
was  no  other  way  of  getting  at,  when  he  carried  nuitters  quite 
too  high.  *'  Droves  of  six  hundred  swine,"  —  I  have  seen  (by 
reading  in  those  old  Books)  certain  noble  Gentlemen,  "  of 
Putlitz,"  I  think,  driving  them  openly,  captured  by  the 
stronger  hand  ;  and  have  heard  the  short  (pierulous  squeak  of 
the  bristly  creatures :  "  What  is  the  use  of  being  a  pig  at  all, 
if  I  am  to  be  stolen  in  this  way,  and  surreptitiously  nuwle 
into  ham  ?  "  I'igs  do  continue  to  bo  bred  in  Brandenburg  : 
but  it  is  uiuler  such  discouragements.  Agriculture,  trade, 
well-being  and  well-doing  of  any  kind,  it  is  not  encourage- 
ment they  are  meeting  here.  Trobaljly  few  countries,  not 
even  Ireland,  have  a  worse  outlook,  unless  help  come.* 

Jobst  came  kick  in  loUS,  after  eight  years'  absence  ;  but  no 
help  came  with  Jobst.  The  JVeumdrk  part  of  Brandenburg, 
which  was  Brother  Johann's  portion,  had  fallen  home  to 
Sigismund,  Brother  Johann  having  died :  but  Sigismund,  far 
from  redeeming  old  pawn-tickets  with  the  Newmark,  pawiu^l 
the  Newmark  too,  —  the  second  Pawnage  of  Brandenburg. 
Pawned  the  Newmark  to  the  Teutsch  Ritters  "for  C3,()0() 
Hungarian  gold  gulden ''  (I  think,  about  £30,000) :  and  gave 
no  jKirt  of  it  to  Jobst ;  had  not  nearly  enough  for  himself  and 
his  Hungarian  occasions. 

Seeing  which,  and  hearing  such  squeak  of  pigs  surrep- 
titiously driven,  with  little  but  discordant  sights  and  sounds 
everywhere,  Jobst  became  disgusted  with  the  matter  ;  and 
1  Pauli,  i.  541-C12.     Michaelis,  i.  283-285. 


Chap.  XIV.  KAISER  IfUPEKT  AND  UUK  BCllGGKAF.  149 
1400. 

resolved  to  wash  his  hands  of  it,  at  least  to  have  his  money 
out  of  it  again.  Having  sold  what  of  the  Domains  he  C't)uld 
to  persons  of  quality,  at  an  uncommonly  easy  rate,  and  so 
pocketed  what  ready  cash  there  was  among  them,  he  made 
over  his  pawn-ticket,  or  properly  he  himself  repawmnl  Bran- 
denburg to  the  Saxou  Potentate,  a  speculative  moneyed 
man,  Markgraf  of  Meissen,  "  Wilhelm  the  Rich  "  so  called. 
Pawned  it  to  Wilhelm  the  Rich,  —  sum  not  named  ;  and 
went  home  to  ^Moravia,  there  to  wait  events.  This  is  the 
thfrd  Brandenburg  pawning  :  let  us  li()j)e  there  may  be  a 
fourth  and  last. 

Brandenhurii  in  the  hands  of  the  Pawnbrokers;  Rupert  of 
the  Pj'alz  i»  Kaiser. 

And  so  we  have  now  reached  that  point  in  Brandenburg 
History  when,  if  some  help  do  not  come,  Brandenburg  will 
not  long  be  a  country,  but  will  either  get  dissipated  in  pieces 
and  stuck  to  tlie  edge  of  others  where  some  government  is,  or 
else  go  waste  again  and  fall  to  the  bisons  and  wild  Ijears. 

Who  now  is  Kurfiirst  of  Brandenburg,  might  be  a  cpiestion. 
"  I  ti/tquestionably  ! ''  Sigismund  would  answer,  with  astonish- 
ment. *'  Soft,  your  Hungarian  Majesty,"  thinks  Jobst :  ''  till 
my  cash  is  paid,  may  it  not  probably  be  another  ? "  This 
question  has  its  interest:  the  Electors  just  now  (a.d.  1400) 
are  about  deposing  Wenzel ;  must  choose  some  better  Kaiser. 
If  they  wanted  another  scion  of  the  House  of  Luxemburg ;  a 
mature  old  gentleman  of  sixty ;  full  of  plans,  plausibilities, 
pretensions,  —  Jobst  is  their  man.  Jobst  and  Sigismund  were 
of  one  mind  as  to  Wenzel's  going ;  at  least  Sigismund  voted 
clearly  so,  and  Jobst  said  nothing  counter :  but  the  Kurfiirsts 
did  not  think  of  Jobst  for  successor.  After  some  stumbling, 
they  fixed  upon  Rupert  Kur-Pfah  (Elector  Palatine,  Euprecht 
von  der  Pfalz)  as  Kaiser. 

Rupert  of  the  Pfalz  proved  a  highly  respectable  Kaiser ; 
lasted  for  ten  years  (1400-1410),  with  honor  to  himself  and 
the  Reich.  A  strong  heart,  strong  head,  but  short  of  means. 
He  chastised  petty  mutiny  with  vigor ;  could  not  bring  down 
the  Milanese  Visconti,  who  had  perched  themselves  so  high  ou 


150        HUANDENIJUKG  AM)   IIUIIENZULLEILNS.        U-'-k  II. 

UK). 

money  j)ai{l  to  Wfiizcl  ;  could  not  lical  the  schism  of  tlie 
Church  (Double  or  Triple  roi>e,  Kome-Avignon  affair),  or 
awaken  the  licich  to  a  sense  of  its  old  dignity  and  present 
loose  condition.  In  the  late  loose  times,  as  Antiquaries  re- 
mark,^ most  Mi'mbers  of  the  Empire,  Petty  Princes  even  ami 
Im]ierial  Towns,  had  been  struggling  to  set  up  for  themselves  ; 
and  were  now  concerned  chiefly  to  become  Sovereign  in  their 
own  Territories.  And  Schilter  informs  us,  it  was  about  this 
j)eriod  that  most  of  them  attained  such  rather  unblessed  con- 
summation ;  Rupert  of  himself  not  able  to  help  it,  with  all  his 
willingness.  The  People  called  him  '•  Rupert  Klemm  (Rupert 
Smlth's-vice)''  from  his  resolute  ways  ;  which  nickname  — 
given  him  not  in  hatred,  but  partly  in  satirical  good-will  — 
is  itself  a  kind  of  history.  From  Historians  of  tlie  lic'uh  he 
deserves  honorable  regivtful  mention. 

He  ha<l  for  Empress  a  Sister  of  Burggraf  Friedrich's;  which 
high  lady,  unknown  to  us  otherwise,  except  by  her  Tomb  at 
Heidelberg,  we  rememlx^r  for  lier  Brother's  sake.  Kaiser 
Rupert  —  great-grandson  of  that  Kur-Pfalz  who  was  Kaiser 
Ludwig's  elder  brother — is  the  culminating  j)oint  of  the 
Electors  Palatine  ;  the  Highest  that  Heidelberg  produced. 
Ancestor  of  those  famed  Protestant  "  Palatines ; "  of  all  the 
Palatines  or  Pfahes  that  reign  in  these  late  centuries.  Ances- 
tor of  the  present  Bavarian  Majesty ;  Kaiser  Ludwig's  race 
having  died  out.  Ancestor  of  the  unfortunate  WintrrkiJn'Kj, 
Friedrich  King  of  Bohemia,  who  is  too  well  known  in  English 
History ;  —  ancestor  also  of  Charles  XII.  of  Sweden,  a  highly 
creditable  fact  of  the  kind  to  him.  Fact  indisputable  :  A 
cadet  of  Pfalz-Zweibriick  {Deiix-Ponts,  as  the  French  call  it), 
direct  from  Rupert,  went  to  serve  in  Sweden  in  his  soldier 
business;  distinguished  himself  in  soldiering;  —  had  a  Sister 
of  the  great  Gustav  Adolf  to  wife  ;  and  from  her  a  renowned 
Son,  Karl  Gustav  (Christina's  Cousin),  who  succeeded  as 
King ;  w^ho  again  had  a  Grandson  made  in  his  own  likeness, 
only  still  more  of  iron  in  his  composition.  —  Enough  now  of 
Rupert  Smith^s-vice  ;  who  died  in  1410,  and  left  the  Reich 
again  vacant. 

1  Kuhler,  p.  334 ;  who  quotes  Schilter. 


Chaj.  XIV.  KALSEli  .SIGIS.MUNL)  AND  UUK  lit  RGGRAF.    151 

1411. 

Rupert's  funeral  is  hardly  done,  when,  over  in  I'reus.son,  far 
off  in  the  Memel  region,  place  called  Tanneuberg,  where  there 
is  still  "  a  chiircliyard  to  be  seen,"  if  little  more,  the  Teutsch 
.Hitters  had,  unexpectedly,  a  terrible  Defeat :  cousmnniation  of 
their  Polish  Miscellaneous  quarrels  of  long  standing;  and  the 
end  of  their  high  courses  in  this  world.  A  ruined  Teutsch 
Ritterdom,  as  good  as  ruined,  ever  henceforth.  Kaiser  Rupert 
died  18th  May ;  and  on  the  loth  July,  within  two  months,  was 
fouj^ht  that  dreatlful  ''  Battle  of  Tannenberg,"  —  Poland  and 
l^olish  King,  with  miscellany  of  savage  Tartars  and  revolted 
I'russians,  versus  Teutsch  Ritterdom  ;  all  in  a  very  high  mood 
of  umtual  rage ;  the  very  elements,  "  wild  thunder,  tempest 
and  rain-deluges,"  playing  chorus  to  Jthem  on  the  occasion.* 
Ritterdom  fought  lion-like,  but  with  insufficient  strategic  and 
other  wisdom  ;  and  was  driven  nearly  distracted  to  see  its 
pride  tripped  into  the  ditch  by  such  a  set.  Vacant  Reich 
could  not  in  the  least  attend  to  it  ;  nor  can  we  farther  at 
present. 

Si</i^minul,  with  a  striujijle^  bccamcis  Kaiser. 

Jobst  and  Sigismund  were  competitors  for  the  Kaisership ; 
Wenzel,  too,  striking  in  with  claims  for  reinstatement :  the 
House  of  Luxemburg  divided  against  itself.  Wenzel,  finding 
reinstatement  not  to  be  thought  of,  threw  his  weight,  such  as 
it  was,  into  the  scale  of  Cousin  Jobst ;  remembering  angrily 
how  Brother  Sigismund  voted  in  the  Deposition  case,  ten 
years  ago.  The  contest  was  vehement,  and  like  to  be  lengthy. 
Jobst,  though  he  had  made  over  his  pa"svn-ticket,  claimed  to 
be  Elector  of  Brandenburg ;  and  voted  for  Himself.  The  like, 
with  still  more  emphasis,  did  Sigismund,  or  Burggraf  Fried- 
rich  acting  for  him  :  "  Sigismund,  sure,  is  Kur-Brandenburg 
though  under  pawn!"  argued  Friedrich,  —  and,  I  almost  guess, 
though  that  is  not  said,  produced  from  his  own  purse,  at  some 
stage  of  the  business,  the  actual  money  for  Jobst,  to  close  his 
Brandenburg  pretension. 

Both  were  elected  (majority  contested  in  this  manner) ;  and 
old  Jobst,  then  above  seventy,  was  like  to  have  given  much 

1  Voigt,  vii.  82.     Biiscliinir,  Erdbeschreibung  (Hamlurij,  1770),  ii.  1038. 


liV2        BRANDENBURG  AND  IIOIIENZOLLERNS.        H.h-k  ii. 

1411. 

troul)lo  :  but  hapjjily  in  tlirec  months  he  died ;  ^  and  Sigis- 
luund  became  indisi)utable.  Jobst  was  the  son  of  Maultaschc's 
Xullity ;  him  too,  in  an  involuntary  sort,  she  was  the  cause  of. 
In  his  day  Jobst  made  much  noise  in  the  world,  but  did  litth; 
or  no  good  in  it.  "  He  was  thought  a  great  man,"  says  one 
satirical  old  Chronicler ;  **  and  there  was  nothing  great  alx)ut 
him  but  the  beard." 

"  The  cause  of  Sigismund's  success  with  the  Electors," 
says  Kcihlcr,  "  or  of  his  having  any  party  among  them,  w;us 
the  faithfid  and  unwearied  diligence  which  had  been  used 
for  him  by  the  above-named  liurggraf  Friedrich  VI.  of 
>«iirnborg,  who  tt)ok  extreme  pains  to  forward  Sigismund  to 
the  Empire  ;  pleading  .that  Sigismund  and  Wenzel  would  be 
sure  to  agree  well  henceforth,  and  that  Sigismund,  having 
already  such  extensive  territories  (Hungary,  Ih'andfnlmrg  and 
so  forth)  by  inheritance,  would  not  l)e  so  exact  about  the 
Meirhs-ToWs  and  other  Imi)erial  Incomes.  This  same  Fried- 
rich  also,  wlion  the  Election  fell  out  doubtful,  was  Sigismund's 
best  support  in  Germany,  nay  almost  his  right-hand,  through 
whom  he  did  whatever  was  done."  ' 

Sigismund  is  Kaiser,  then,  in  spite  of  Wenzel.  King  of 
Hungary,  after  unheard-of  troubles  and  advi-ntures,  ending 
some  years  ago  in  a  kind  of  peace  and  conquest,  he  has  long 
been.  King  of  Bohemia,  too,  he  at  last  became ;  having 
survived  "Wenzel,  who  was  childless.  Kaiser  of  the  Holy 
Itoman  Empire,  and  so  much  else :  is  not  Sigismund  now  a 
great  man  ?  Truly  the  loom  he  weaves  upon,  in  this  world, 
is  very  large.  But  the  weaver  was  of  headlong,  high-pacing, 
flimsy  nature;  and  both  warp  and  woof  were  gone  dreadfully 
entangled !  — 

This  is  the  Kaiser  Sigismund  who  held  the  Council  of 
Constance ;  and  "■  blushed  visibly,"  when  Huss,  about  to  die, 
alluded  to  the  Letter  of  Safe-conduct  granted  him,  which 
was  issuing  in  such  fashion.'  Sigismund  blushed  ;  but  could 
not  conveniently  mend  the  matter,  —  so  many  matters  press- 
ing on  him  just  now.     As  they  perpetually  did,  and  had  done. 

1  "  Jodocu3  BoTbatus,"  21st  July,  1411. 

3  Kohler,  p.  337.  »  15th  June,  1415. 


c.iAr.  X!V.  KAISER  SIGISMUND  AND  OUK  nURGGllAF.    loo 

1414. 

An  always-hoping,  never-resting,  unsuccessful,  vain  and  empty 
Kaiser.  Specious,  speculative ;  given  to  eloquence,  diplomacy, 
and  the  windy  instead  of  the  solid  arts;  —  always  short  of 
-  money  for  one  thing.  He  roamed  about,  and  talked  elo- 
quently; —  aiming  high,  and  generally  missing:  —  how  he 
went  to  conquer  Hungary,  and  had  to  float  down  the  Donau 
instead,  with  an  attendant  or  two,  in  a  most  private  manner, 
and  take  refuge  with  the  Grand  Turk :  this  we  have  seen, 
an^l  this  is  a  general  emblem  of  him.  Hungary  and  even  the 
Keieh  have  at  length  become  his ;  but  have  brought  small 
triumph  in  any  kind ;  and  insteatl  of  ready  money,  debt  on 
debt.  His  Majesty  has  no  money,  and  his  Majesty's  occasions 
need  it  more  and  more. 

He  is  now  (a.d.  1411)  holding  this  Council  of  Constance, 
by  way  of  healing  the  Church,  which  is  sick  of  Three  simul- 
taneous Popes  and  of  much  else.  He  finds  the  problem  diffi- 
cult; finds  he  will  have  to  run  into  Spain,  to  persuade  a 
refractory  I'ope  there,  if  eloquence  can  (as  it  cannot)  :  all 
which  requires  money,  money.  At  opening  of  the  Council, 
he  ''officiated  as  deacon;"  actually  did  some  kind  of  litany- 
ing  "with  a  surplice  over  him,"  ^  though  Kaiser  and  King 
of  the  llomans.  But  this  passage  of  his  opening  speech 
is  what  I  recollect  best  of  him  there  :  "  Eight  Reverend 
Fathers,  date  oj)eram  ut  ilia  nefanda  schisma  eradicetur,^^  ex- 
claims Sigismund,  intent  on  having  the  Bohemian  Schism 
well  dealt  with,  —  which  he  reckons  to  be  of  the  feminine 
gender.  To  which  a  Cardinal  mildly  remarking,  "  Domlyie, 
schisvia  est  generis  neutrius  {Schisma  is  neuter,  your  Majesty)," 
—  Sigismund  loftilj*  replies,  ^^  Ego  sum  liex  Romaniis  et  super 
grammaticam  (I  am  King  of  the  Romans,  and  above  Gram- 
mar) ! "  ^  For  which  reason  I  call  him  in  my  Note-books 
Sigismund  super  Grammaticam,  to  distinguish  him  in  the  im- 
broglio of  Kaisers. 

1  25th  December,  1414  (Kuhler,  p.  340). 

2  "Wolfgang  Mentzel,  Geschichte  der  Deutschen,  i.  477. 


154    BRANDENBUKG  AND  IIOHENZOLLERNS.  ij<m.k  II. 

8th  Julv,  1411. 

Brandenburg  is  pawned  for  the  laat  time. 

How  Jobst's  pawn-ticket  was  settled  I  never  clearly  heard ; 
but  can  guess  it  was  by  Burggraf  Friedrich's  advancing 
the  money,  in  the  pinch  above  indicated,  or  paying  it  after- 
wards to  Jobst's  heirs  whoever  they  were.  Thus  much  is 
certain :  Burggraf  Friedrich,  these  three  years  and  more 
(ever  since  8th  July,  1411)  holds  Sigismund's  Deed  of  ac- 
knowledgment "  for  100,000  gulden  lent  at  various  times  :  " 
and  has  likewise  got  the  Electorate  of  Brandenburg  in  pledge 
for  that  sum ;  and  does  himself  administer  the  said  Elec- 
torate till  he  be  paid.  This  is  the  important  news ;  but  this 
is  not  all. 

The  new  journey  into  Spain  reipiires  new  maneys ;  this 
Coimcil  itself,  with  such  a  i)omp  as  suited  Sigismund,  has 
cost  him  endless  moneys.  Brandenburg,  torn  to  ruins  in  the 
way  wo  saw,  is  a  sorrowful  matter ;  and,  except  the  title  of 
it,  as  a  feather  in  one's  cap,  is  worth  nothing  to  Sigismund. 
And  he  is  still  short  of  money  ;  and  will  forever  be.  Why 
coidd  not  he  give  up  Brandenburg  altogether ;  since,  instead 
of  paying,  he  is  still  making  new  loans  from  Burggraf  Fried- 
rich  ;  and  the  hope  of  ever  paying  were  mere  lunacy  !  Sigis- 
mund revolves  these  sad  thoughts  too,  amid  his  world-wide 
diplomacies,  and  etforts  to  heal  the  Church.  *'  I'ledged  for 
100,000  gulden,"  sadly  ruminates  Sigismund ;  "  and  50,000 
more  borrowed  since,  by  little  and  little ;  and  more  ever 
needed,  especially  for  this  grand  Spanish  journey  !  "  these 
were  Sigismund's  sad  thoughts  :  —  "  Advance  me,  in  a  round 
sum,  250,000  gulden  more,"  said  he  to  Burggraf  Friedrich, 
"  250,000  more,  for  my  manifold  occasions  in  this  time  ;  — 
that  will  be  400,000  in  whole  ;  ^  —  and  take  the  Electorate  of 
Brandenburg  to  yourself,  Land,  Titles,  Sovereign  Electorship 
and  all,  and  make  me  rid  of  it ! "  That  was  the  settlement 
adopted,  in  Sigismund's  apartment  at  Constance,  on  the  30th 
of  April,  1415 ;  signed,  sealed  and  ratified,  —  and  the  money 
paid.  A  very  notable  event  in  World-History ;  virtually  com- 
pleted on  the  day  we  mention. 

1  Rentsch,  pp.  75,  357. 


Chap.  XIV.  BRANDENBURG  PAWNED.  155 

17th  .\pril,  1417. 

The  ceremony  of  Investiture  did  not  take  place  till  two 
years  afterwards,  when  the  Spanish  journey  had  proved 
fruitless,  when  much  else  of  fruitless  had  come  and  gone, 
.and  Kaiser  and  Council  were  probably  more  at  leisure  for 
such  a  thing.  Done  at  length  it  was  by  Kaiser  Sigismund 
in  utmost  gala,  with  the  Grandees  of  the  Empire  assisting, 
and  august  members  of  the  Council  and  world  in  general 
looking  on ;  in  the  big  Square  or  ^Market-place  of  Constance, 
17th  April,  1417;  — is  to  be  found  described  in  Rentsch,  from 
Nauclerus  and  the  old  Newsmongers  of  the  time.  Very  grand 
indeed :  much  processioning  on  horseback,  under  powerful 
trumpet-peals  and  flourishes  ;  much  stately  kneeling,  stately 
rising,  stejiping  backwards  (dune  well,  zierllch,  on  the  Kur- 
fiirst's  part) ;  liberal  expenditure  of  cloth  and  pomp ;  in  short, 
"above  100,000  people  looking  on  from  roofs  and  windows,"  ^ 
and  Kaiser  Sigismund  in  all  his  glory.  Sigismund  was  on 
a  high  Platform  in  tlie  ^larket-place,  with  stairs  to  it  and 
from  it ;  the  illustrious  Kaiser,  —  red  as  a  flamingo,  "  with 
scarlet  mantle  and  crown  of  gold," — a  treat  to  the  eyes  of 
simple  mankind. 

What  sum  of  modern  money,  in  real  purchasing  power,  this 
"  400,000  Hungarian  Gold  Gulden  "  is,  I  have  inquired  in  the 
likely  quarters  without  result ;  and  it  is  probable  no  man  ex- 
actly knows.  The  latest  existing  representative  of  the  ancient 
Gold  Gulden  is  the  Ducat,  worth  generally  about  a  Half-sover- 
eign in  English.  Taking  the  sum  at  that  latest  rate,  it  amounts 
to  £200,000 ;  and  the  reader  can  use  that  as  a  note  of  memory 
for  the  sale-price  of  Brandenburg  with  all  its  lands  and  hon- 
ors, —  multiplying  it  perhaps  by  four  or  six  to  bring  out  its 
effective  amount  in  current  coin.  Dog-cheap,  it  must  be  owned, 
for  size  and  capability ;  but  in  the  most  waste  condition,  full 
of  mutiny,  injustice,  anarchy  and  highway  robbery ;  a  purchase 
that  might  have  proved  dear  enough  to  another  man  than 
Burggraf  Friedrich. 

But  so,  at  any  rate,  moribund  Brandenburg  has  got  its  Ho- 
henzollern  Kurfiirst ;    and  started  on  a  new  career  it  little 
*  Pauli,  AUgemeine  Preussische  Staats-Geschichte,  ii.  74.    Rentsch,  pp.  76-78. 


156         BRANDENBURG  AND  IIOHENZOLLERNS.      Book  II. 

1417. 

dreamt  of;  —  and  we  can  now,  right  willingly,  quit  Sigismuiul 
and  the  Keichs-History ;  leave  Kaiser  Sigismuud  to  sink  or 
swim  at  his  o^vn  will  henceforth.  His  grand  feat  in  life,  the 
wonder  of  his  generation,  was  this  same  Council  of  Constance  ; 
which  proved  entirely  a  failure ;  one  of  the  largest  ttnnd-egrjs 
ever  dropped  with  noise  and  travail  in  this  world.  Two 
hundred  thousand  human  creatures,  reckoned  and  reckoning 
themselves  the  elixir  of  the  Intellect  and  Dignity  of  Europe ; 
two  hundred  thousand,  nay  some,  counting  the  lower  menials 
and  numerous  unfortunate  females,  say  four  hundred  thuu- 
sand,  —  were  got  congregated  into  that  little  Swiss  Town  ;  and 
there  as  an  Ecumenic  Council,  or  solemnly  distilled  elixir  of 
what  pious  Intellect  and  Valor  could  be  scraped  together  in 
the  world,  they  labored  with  all  their  select  might  for  four 
years'  space.  That  was  the  Council  of  Constance.  And  except 
this  transfer  of  Brandenburg  to  Friedrich  of  Hohenzollern, 
resulting  from  said  Council  in  the  quite  reverse  and  involun- 
tary way,  one  sees  not  what  good  result  it  had. 

They  did  indeed  burn  Huss ;  but  that  could  not  be  called  a 
beneficial  incident ;  that  seemed  to  Sigismuiul  and  the  Council 
a  most  small  and  insignificant  one.  And  it  kindled  Bohemia, 
and  kindled  rhinoceros  Zisca,  into  never-imagined  flame  of 
vengeance ;  brought  mere  disaster,  disgrace,  and  defeat  on  de- 
feat to  Sigismuud,  and  kept  his  hands  full  for  the  rest  of  his 
life,  however  small  he  had  thought  it.  As  for  the  sublime 
four  years'  deliberations  and  debates  of  this  Sanhedrim  of  the 
Universe,  —  eloquent  debates,  conducted,  we  may  say,  under 
such  extent  of  wig  as  was  never  seen  before  or  since,  —  they 
have  fallen  wholly  to  the  domain  of  Dryasdust ;  and  amount, 
for  mankind  at  this  time,  to  zero  phis  the  Burning  of  Huss. 
On  the  whole,  Burggraf  Friedrich's  Electorship,  and  the  first 
Hohenzollern  to  Brandenburg,  is  the  one  good  result. 

Adieu,  then,  to  Sigismuud.  Let  us  leave  him  at  this  his 
culminating  point,  in  the  Market-place  of  Constance ;  red  as  a 
flamingo ;  doing  one  act  of  importance,  though  unconsciously 
and  against  his  will.  —  I  subjoin  here,  for  refreshment  of  the 
reader's  memory,  a  Synopsis,  or  bare  arithmetical  List,  of 
those   Intercalary  Non-Hapsburg  Kaisers,   which,   now  that 


CiiAr.  XIV.  NON-HAPSBURG   KAISEKS.  157 

its  original  small  duty  is  done,  may  as  well  be  printed  as 
burnt : — 

The  Seven  Intercalary  or  Non-Hapshurg  Kaisers. 

Rudolf  of  Hivpsburg  died  a.i>.  VZ^dl,  after  a  icigu  of  eighteen  vigorous 
years,  very  useful  to  the  Eiiii)iie  after  its  Anarchic  Interregnum.  IIo 
was  succeeded,  not  by  any  of  Ids  own  sous  or  kindred,  but  by 

1°.  Adolf  of  Nassau,  l'2!)l-lX*l>8.  A  stalwart  but  necessitous  Ilerr; 
much  concerned  in  the  French  projects  of  our  Edward  Longslianks : 
miles  stipendiarius  Edttardi,  as  the  Opposition  party  scornfully  termed 
hira.  Slain  in  battle  by  the  Anti-Kaiser,  Albrecht  or  Albert  eldest  son 
of  Rudcdf,  who  thereujuiu  becaiiu'  Kaiser. 

Albert  I.  (..f  llai.sburg,  he),  1298-1308.  Parricided,  in  that  latter 
year,  at  the  Ford  of  the  Reuss. 

2°  (a).  Hem-y  VII.  of  Luxemburg,  1308-1313;  poisoned  (1313)  in 
saoramental  wine.  The  first  of  the  Luxeuiburgers;  who  are  marked 
here,  in  their  order,  by  the  addition  of  an  alphabetic  letter. 

3°.  Ludwig  der  Baier,  1314-1347  (Duke  of  Ober-Baiern,  Upper 
Bavaria ;  progenitor  of  the  subsequent  Kurfiirsts  of  Baiern,  who  are 
Cousins  of  the  Pfalz  Family). 

4°  (h).  Karl  IV.,  1347-1378,  Son  of  Johann  of  Bohemia  (Johann 
Ich-dien),  and  Grandson  of  Henry  VII.  Nicknamed  the  Pfaffen- 
Kaiser  (Parsous'-Kaiser).  Karlsbad;  the  G«dden  Bull;  Castle  of 
Taugermiinde. 

5°  (c).  Wenzel  (or  Weuceslaus),  1378-14fK),  Karl's  eldest  Son. 
Elected  1378,  still  very  young  ;  deposed  in  1400,  Kaiser  Rupert  suc- 
ceeding. Continued  King  of  Bohemia  till  Ins  death  (by  Zisca  at  second- 
hand) nineteen  years  after.     Had  been  Kaiser  for  tweuty-two  years. 

6°.  Rupert  of  the  Pfalz,  1400-1410;  called  Rupert  Kkmrn  (Pincers, 
Smith's-vice) ;  Brother-in-law  to  Burggraf  Friedrich  VI.  (afterwards 
Kurfiirst  Friedrich  I.),  who  marched  with  hhn  to  Italy  and  often  else- 
whither, Burgsrraf  Johann  the  elder  Brother-in-law  being  then  ofteuest 
in  Hungary  with  Sigisimuid,  Karl  IV. 's  second  Son. 

7°  (rZ).  Sigismuud,  1410-1437,  Weuzel's  younger  Brother;  the  fourth 
and  last  of  the  Luxemburgers,  seventh  and  last  of  the  Intercalary  Kai- 
sers. Sidd  Brandenburg,  after  thrice  or  oftener  pawning  it.  Sigismuud 
super  Grammaticam. 

Super-Grammaticam  died  9th  December,  1437;  left  only  a  Daugh- 
ter, wedded  to  the  then  Albert  Duke  of  Austria  ;  which  Albert,  on  the 
strength  of  this,  came  to  the  Kingship  of  Bohemia  and  of  Huugary,  as 
his  Wife's  inheritance,  and  to  the  Empire  by  election.     Died  thereupon 


158         BRANDENBURG  AND  HOIIENZOLLERNS.      B<^"k  H. 

iu  few  months  :  "  tliree  crowns,  Bohemia,  Hungary,  tho  Roirh,  in 
that  one  year,  ll.'lS,"  say  the  old  Ilistnriiuis;  "and  then  next  year  ho 
quitted  them  all,  for  a  fourth  and  more  lasting  cro\ni,  as  is  hoped.'' 
Kaiser  Albert  II.,  1438-14^0:  After  whom  all  are  liapsburgers, — 
excepting,  if  that  is  an  exception,  the  unlucky  Kail  VII.  alone  (174:i- 
1745),  who  descends  from  Ludwig  the  Baiur. 


BOOK    III. 

THE  nOIIENZOLLEKNS   IN  BRANDENBURG. 
1412-1713. 


CHArTEK   T. 


KURFUKST    KUIEDKICII  I. 


BuRGGRAF  Friedricii,  Oil  lus  first  coiiiing  to  Brandenburg, 
found  Init  a  cool  reception  as  .Statthalter.*  He  came  as  the 
representative  of  law  and  rule  ;  and  there  had  been  many  help- 
ing themselves  by  a  ruleless  life,  of  late.  Industry  was  at  a 
low  ebb,  violence  was  rife ;  plunder,  disorder  everj'where ;  too 
much  the  habit  for  baronial  gentlemen  to  "  live  by  the  saddle," 
as  they  termed  it,  that  is  by  highway  robbery  in  modern 
phrase. 

The  Towns,  harried  and  plundered  to  skin  and  bone,  were 
glad  to  see  a  Statthalter,  and  did  homage  to  him  with  all  their 
heart.  But  the  Baronage  or  Squirearchy  of  the  country  were 
of  another  mind.  These,  in  the  late  anarchies,  had  set  up  for 
a  kind  of  kings  in  their  own  right :  they  had  their  feuds ;  made 
war,  made  peace,  levied  tolls,  transit-dues  ;  lived  much  at  their 
own  discretion  in  these  solitary  countries  ;  —  rushing  out  from 
their  stone  towers  ("  walls  fourteen  feet  thick  "),  to  seize  any 
herd  of  '*'  six  hundred  swine,"  any  convoy  of  Liibeck  or  Ham- 
burg merchant-goods,  that  had  not  contented  them  in  passing. 
"What  were  pedlers  and  mechanic  fellows  made  for,  if  not  to 

^  "  Johannistage  "  (24  June)  "  1412,"  he  first  set  foot  in  Brandenburg,  with 
due  escort,  in  due  state  ;  only  Statthalter  (Viceregent)  as  yet:  Pauli,  i.  594, 
ii.  58;  Steszel,  GescAi'cA/e  dcs  Preussischen  Staats  (Hamburg,  1830,  1851), 
i.  167-169. 


IGO    Tin:   HOIIENZOLLERXS   IN   r.RANDENBUKG.   «*•««  HI. 

14U. 

be  pluiulered  when  needful  ?  Arbitrary  rule,  on  the  part  of 
these  Xoble  liobber-Lords  I  And  then  much  of  the  Crowu- 
Doniains  had  gone  to  the  chief  of  them,  —  pawned  (and  the 
]>a\vn-ti('ki't  lost,  so  to  speak),  or  sold  for  what  trifle  of  ready 
money  was  to  be  had,  in  Jobst  and  Company's  time.  To  these 
gentlemen,  a  Statthalter  foming  to  inquire  into  matters  was 
no  welcome  jdienonuMion.  Your  Edle  llcrr  (Noble  Lord)  of 
I'utlitz,  Noble  Lords  of  Quitzow,  Kochow,  ^Liltitz  and  others, 
suj)reme  in  their  grassy  solitudes  this  long  while,  and  accus- 
tomed to  nothing  greater  than  themselves  in  Brandenburg, 
how  should  they  obey  a  Statthalter  ? 

Sucli  was  more  or  less  the  universal  humor  in  the  Squire- 
archy of  Brandenburg;  not  of  good  omen  to  Burggi-af  Fried- 
rich.  But  the  chief  seat  of  contumacy  seemed  to  Ije  among 
the  Quitzows,  Tutlitzes,  above  spoken  of;  big  Squires  in  the 
district  they  call  the  Priegnitz,  in  the  Country  of  the  sluggish 
JIavel  Kiver,  northwest  from  Berlin  a  fifty  or  forty  miles. 
These  refused  homage,  very  many  of  them ;  said  they  were 
"  incori)orated  with  Bohmen  ; "  said  this  and  that;  —  much 
disinclined  to  lujmage ;  and  would  not  do  it.  Stiff  surly  fel- 
lows, much  deficient  in  discernment  of  what  is  above  them  and 
what  is  not :  — a  thick-skinned  set ;  lx)dies  clad  in  buff  leather ; 
mintls  also  cased  in  ill  habits  of  long  continuance. 

Triedrich  was  very  patient  with  them ;  hoped  to  prevail  by 
gentle  methods.  He  *'  invited  them  to  dinner ; "  "  had  them 
often  at  dinner  for  a  year  or  more  :  "  but  could  make  no  prog- 
ress in  that  way.  "  Who  is  tliis  we  have  got  for  a  Governor  ?  " 
said  the  noble  lords  privately  to  each  other :  "  A  Xurnhrrger 
Tdiid  (Niirnberg  Plaything,  —  wooden  image,  such  as  they 
make  at  Nurnberg),"  said  they,  grinning,  in  a  thick-skinned 
way :  "  If  it  rained  Burggraves  all  the  year  round,  none  of 
them  would  come  to  luck  in  this  Country  ;  *'  —  and  continued 
their  feuds,  toll-levyings,  plunderings  and  other  contumacies. 

Seeing  matters  come  to  this  pass  after  waiting  above  a 
year,  Bui'ggraf  Friedrich  gathered  his  Frankish  men-at-arms ; 
quietly  made  league  with  the  neighboring  Potentates,  Thii- 
ringen  and  others ;  got  some  munitions,  some  artillery  together 
—  especially  one  huge  gun,  the  biggest  ever  seen,  "a  twenty- 


Chai-.  I.  KUKFURST  FKIEDKICII   I.  101 

1414. 

foiiT  pounder "  no  less ;  to  which  the  peasants,  dragging  her 
with  ditticulty  through  tlie  clayey  roads,  gave  the  name  of 
Faille  Grt'te  (Lazy,  or  Heavy  Peg)  ;  a  remarkable  piece  of 
ordnance.  Lazy  Peg  he  had  got  from  the  Landgraf  of  Thu- 
ringen,  on  loan  merely ;  but  he  turned  her  to  excellent  account 
of  his  own.  1  have  often  im^uired  after  Lazy  I'eg's  fate  in 
subsequent  times  ;  but  could  never  learn  anything  distinct :  — 
the  German  Dryasdust  is  a  dull  dog,  and  seldom  carries  any- 
thing human  in  those  big  wallets  of  his  !  — 

Equipped  in  this  way,  Burggraf  Friedrich  (lie  was  not  yet 
Kurfiirst,  only  coming  to  be)  marches  for  the  Havel  Country 
(eiirly  days  of  1414) ;  *  makes  his  appearance  before  Quitzow's 
strong-house  of  Friesack,  walls  fourteen  feet  thick :  "  You 
Dietrich  von  Quitzow,  are  you  prepared  to  live  as  a  peaceable 
subject  henceforth :  to  do  homage  to  the  Laws  and  me  ?  "  — 
"  Never  ! "  answered  Quitzow,  and  pulled  up  his  drawbridgf. 
Whereupon  Heavy  Peg  opened  upon  hiin,  Hea\y  Peg  and 
other  guns ;  and,  in  some  eight-and-forty  hours,  shook  Quit- 
zow's impregnable  Friesack  about  his  ears.  This  was  in  the 
nutnth  of  February,  1414,  day  not  given :  Friesack  was  the 
name  of  the  impregnable  Castle  (still  discoverable  in  our 
tinu') ;  and  it  ought  to  be  memorable  and  venerable  to  every 
Prussian  man.  Purggraf  Friedrich  VL,  not  yet  quite  be- 
come Kurfurst  Friedrich  I.,  but  in  a  year's  space  to  become 
so,  he  in  jierson  was  the  beneficent  operator  ;  Heavy  Peg,  and 
steady  Human  Insight,  these  were  cleai'ly  the  chief  imple- 
ments. 

Quitzow  being  settled,  —  for  the  country  is  in  military  occu- 
jKitiou  of  Friedrich  and  his  allies,  and  except  in  some  stone 
castle  a  man  has  no  chance,  —  straightway  Putlitz  or  another 
ifiutineer,  with  his  drawbridge  up,  was  battered  to  pieces,  and 
his  drawbridge  brought  slamming  down.  After  this  manner, 
in  an  incredibly  short  period,  mutiny  was  quenched ;  and  it 
became  apparent  to  Xoble  Lords,  and  to  all  men,  that  here 
at  length  was  a  man  come  who  would  have  the  Laws  obeyed 
again,  and  could  and  would  keep  mutiny  down. 

1  Michaelis,  i.  287  ;  Stenzel,  i.  IGS  (where,  contrary  to  wont,  is  an  insignifi 
caut  error  or  two).     Paiili  (ii.  58)  i.«,  as  usual,  lost  in  water. 
VOL.  V.  11 


162    THE  HOHENZOLLERNS  IN   BRANDENBURG.   Book  IH. 

14-20. 

Friedrich  showed  no  cruelty  ;  far  the  contrary.  Your  mu- 
tiny once  ended,  and  a  little  repented  of,  he  is  ready  to  be 
your  gracious  Trinee  again  :  Fair-play  and  the  social  wine-cup, 
or  inexorable  war  and  Lazy  Peg,  it  is  at  your  discretion  which. 
Brandenburg  submitted;  hardly  ever  rebelled  more.  Branden- 
burg, under  the  wise  Kurfiirst  it  has  got.  begins  in  a  snuiU 
degree  to  be  cosmic  again,  or  of  the  domain  of  the  gods; 
ceases  to  be  chaotic  and  a  mere  cockpit  of  the  devils. 

There  is  no  doubt  but  this  Friedrich  also,  like  his  ancestor 
Friedrich  III.,  the  First  Hereditary  Burggraf,  was  an  excel- 
lent citizen  of  his  country :  a  man  conspicuously  important 
in  all  German  business  in  his  time.  A  man  setting  up  foi 
no  jiartieular  magnanimity,  ability  or  heroism,  but  uncon- 
sciously exhibiting  a  good  deal ;  which  by  degrees  gained 
universal  recognition.  He  did  not  shine  much  as  lleichs-Gen- 
eralissimo,  under  Kaiser  Sigismund,  in  his  expeditions  against 
Zisca ;  on  the  contrary,  he  presided  over  huge  defeat  and  rout, 
once  and  again,  in  that  capacity ;  and  indeed  had  represented 
in  vain  that,  with  such  a  species  of  militia,  victory  was  imix)S- 
sible.  He  represented  and  again  represented,  to  no  jiurpose  ; 
whereupon  he  declined  the  otiice  farther ;  in  which  others 
fared  no  better.* 

The  offer  to  be  Kaiser  was  made  him  in  his  old  days ;  but 
he  wisely  declined  that  too.  It  was  in  Brandenburg,  by  what 
he  silently  founded  there,  that  he  did  his  chief  benefit  to 
Germany  and  mankind.  He  understood  the  noble  art  of  gov- 
erning men ;  had  in  him  the  justice,  clearness,  valor  and 
patience  needed  for  that.  A  man  of  sterling  probity,  for  one 
thing.  Which  indeed  is  the  first  requisite  in  said  art:  —  if 
you  will  have  your  laws  obeyed  without  mutiny,  see  well 
that  they  be  pieces  of  God  Almighty's  Law :  otherwise  all  th5 
artillery  in  the  Avorld  will  not  keep  down  mutiny. 

Friedrich  "  travelled  much  over  Brandenburg ; "  looking 
into  everything  with  his  own  eyes; — makin<:,',  I  can  well 
fancy,  innumerable  crooked  things  straight.  Keducing  more 
and  more  that  famishing  dog-kennel  of  a  Brandenburg  into 
a  fruitful  arable  field.  His  portraits  re[)resent  a  square- 
1  Ilonnayr,  CEsteireichischer  Plutarch  vii.  109-158,  §  Zisca. 


f'"Ai..  I.  KURFURST   FRIEDRICU  I.  1G3 

1440. 

hoiuled,  mild-looking  solid  gentleman,  with  a  certain  twinkle 
of  mirth  in  the  serious  eyes  of  him.  Except  in  those  Hussite 
wars  for  Kaiser  Sigismund  and  the  Reich,  in  which  no  man 
could  prosper,  he  may  be  defined  as  constantly  prosperous. 
To  Brandenburg  he  was,  very  literally,  the  blessing  of  bless- 
ings ;  redemption  out  of  death  into  life.  In  the  ruins  of  tliat 
old  Friesack  Castle,  battered  down  by  Heavy  Peg,  Antiqua- 
rian Science  (if  it  had  an}^  eyes)  might  look  for  the  tap-root 
of  the  Prussian  Nation,  and  the  beginning  of  all  that  Branden- 
burg has  since  grown  to  under  the  sun. 

Friedrich,  in  one  capacity  or  another,  presided  over  Bran- 
denburg near  thirty  years.  He  came  thither  first  of  all  in 
1411* ;  was  not  completely  Kurf  urst  in  his  own  right  till  1415 ; 
nor  i)ublicly  installed,  "with  100^(M)()  looking  on  from  the  roofs 
and  windows,"  in  Constance  3'onder,  till  1417, — age  then  some 
forty-five.  His  Brandenburg  residence,  when  he  happened  to 
have  time  for  residing  or  sitting  still,  was  Tangermiindc,  the 
Castle  built  by  Kaiser  Karl  IV.  He  died  there,  21st  Septem- 
ber, 1440 ;  laden  tolerably  with  years,  and  still  better  with 
memories  of  hard  work  done.  Rentsch  guesses  by  good  infer- 
ence he  was  born  about  1372.  As  I  count,  he  is  seventh 
in  descent  from  that  Conrad,  Burggraf  Conrad  I.,  Cadet  of 
Hohenzollern,  avIio  came  down  from  the  Rauhe  Alp,  seek- 
ing service  with  Kaiser  Redbeard,  above  two  centuries  ago : 
Conrad's  generation  and  six  others  had  vanished  successively 
from  the  world-theatre  in  that  ever-mysterious  manner,  and 
left  the  stage  clear,  when  Burggraf  Friedrich  the  Sixth  came 
to  be  First  Elector.  Let  tliree  centuries,  let  twelve  genera- 
tions farther  come  and  pass,  and  there  will  be  another  still 
more  notable  Friedrich,  —  our  little  Fritz,  destined  to  be 
Third  King  of  Prussia,  oflB.cially  named  Friedrich  II.,  and 
popularly  Frederick  the  Great.  This  First  Elector  is  his 
lineal  ancestor,  twelve  times  removed.-' 

1  Rentsch,  pp.  349-372  ;  Hiibner,  t.  176. 


164    THE  HOHENZOLLERNS  IN  BEANDENBUKG.    B(juk  tii. 

1-440. 


CHAPTER  II. 

MATINEES    DU    ROI    DE    PRUSSE. 

Eleven  successive  Kurfiirsts  followed  Friedricli  in  Bran- 
denburg. Of  whom  and  their  births,  deaths,  wars,  marriages, 
negotiations  and  continual  multitudinous  stream  of  smaller  or 
greater  adventures,  much  has  been  written,  of  a  dreary  con- 
fused nature ;  next  to  nothing  of  which  ought  to  be  repeated 
here.  Some  list  of  their  Names,  with  what  rememberable 
human  feature  or  event  (if  any)  still  speaks  to  us  in  them,  we 
must  try  to  give.  Their  Names,  well  dated,  with  auy  actions, 
incidents,  or  phases  of  life,  which  may  in  this  way  get  to 
adhere  to  them  in  the  reader's  memory,  the  reader  can  iusert, 
each  at  its  right  place,  in  the  grand  Tide  of  European  Events, 
or  in  such  Picture  as  the  reader  may  have  of  that.  Thereby 
with  diligence  he  may  produce  for  himself  some  faint  twilight 
notion  of  the  Flight  of  Time  in  remote  Brandenburg,  —  con- 
vince himself  that  remote  Brandenburg  was  present  all  along, 
alive  after  its  sort,  and  assisting,  dumbly  or  otherwise,  in  the 
great  World-Drama  as  that  went  on. 

We  have  to  say  in  general,  the  history  of  Brandenburg 
\inder  the  Hohenzollerns  has  very  little  in  it  to  excite  a 
vulgar  curiosity,  though  perhaps  a  great  deal  to  interest  an 
intelligent  one.  Had  it  fovind  treatment  duly  intelligent; 
—  which,  however,  how  could  it,  lucky  beyond  its  neigh- 
bors, hope  to  do !  Commonplace  Dryasdust,  and  volumi- 
nous Stupidity,  not  worse  here  than  elsewhere,  play  their 
part. 

It  is  the  history  of  a  State,  or  Social  Vitality,  growing  from 
small  to  great ;  steadily  growing  henceforth  under  guidance  : 
and  the  contrast  between  guidance  and  no-guidance,  or  mis- 
guidance, in  such  matters,  is  again  impressively  illustrated 
there.     This  we  see  well  to  be  the  fact ;  and  the  details  of 


CiiAi-.  II.  MATINEES   DU   ROI   DE   PRUSSE.  165 

144U. 

this  would  be  of  moment,  were  they  given  us  :  but  they  are 
not ;  —  how  could  voluminous  Dryasdust  give  them  ?  Then, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  Phenomenon  is,  for  a  long  while,  on 
so  small  a  scale,  wholly  without  importance  in  European  poli- 
tics and  affairs,  the  commonplace  Historian,  writing  of  it  on 
a  large  scale,  becomes  unreadable  and  intolerable.  Witness 
grandiloquent  Pauli  our  fatal  friend,  with  his  Eight  watery 
Quartos;  which  gods  and  men,  unless  driven  by  necessity, 
hq,ve  learned  to  avoid  !  ^  The  Phenomenon  of  Brandenburg 
is  small,  remote  ;  and  the  essential  particulars,  too  delicate 
for  the  eye  of  Dryasdust,  are  mostly  wanting,  drowned  deep 
in  details  of  the  unessential.  So  that  we  are  well  content, 
my  readers  and  I,  to  keep  remote  from  it  on  this  occasion. 

On  one  other  point  I  must  give  the  reader  warning.  A 
rock  of  offence  on  which  if  he  heedlessly  strike,  I  reckon 
he  will  split ;  at  least  no  help  of  mine  can  benefit  him  till 
he  be  got  off"  again.  Alas,  offences  must  come ;  and  must 
stand,  like  rocks  of  offence,  to  the  shipwreck  of  many  !  Mod- 
ern Dryasdust,  interpreting  the  mysterious  ways  of  Divine 
Providence  in  this  Universe,  or  what  he  calls  writing  His- 
tory, has  done  uncountable  havoc  upon  the  best  interests  of 
mankind.  Hapless  godless  dullard  that  he  is  ;  driven  and 
driving  on  courses  that  lead  only  downward,  for  him  as  for 
us  !  But  one  could  forgive  him  all  things,  compared  with  this 
doctrine  of  devils  which  he  has  contrived  to  get  established, 
pretty  generally,  among  his  unfortunate  fellow-creatures  for 
the  time !  —  I  must  insert  the  following  quotation,  readers 
guess  from  what  author  :  — 

'•In  an  impudent  Pamphlet,  forged  by  I  know  not  whom, 
and  published  in  1766,  under  the  title  of  Matinees  du  Roi  de 
Prusse,  purporting  to  be  'Morning  Conversations'  of  Fred- 
erick the  Great  with  his  Nephew  the  Heir-Apparent,  every 
line  of  which  betrays  itself  as  false  and  spurious  to  a  reader 
who  has  made  any  direct  or  effectual  study  of  Frederick  or 
his  manners  or  affairs,  —  it  is  set  forth,  in  the  way  of  exordium 

1  Dr.  Carl  Friedrich  Pauli,  Allgemeine  Preussische  Stoats- Geschichte,  often 
enough  cited  here. 


1C6    THE  IIOIIENZOLLERNS  IN  BRANDENBURG.   Book  ill. 

1440. 

to  these  pretended  royal  confessions,  that  *  notre  maison,^  our 
Family  of  llohenzolleru,  ever  since  the  first  origin  of  it  among 
the  iSwabian  mountains,  or. its  first  descent  therefrom  into  the 
Castle  and  Imperial  Wardenship  of  Xiirnlx'rg,  some  six  hun- 
dred years  ago  or  more,  has  consistently  travelled  one  road, 
and  this  a  very  notable  one.  'We,  as  I  myself  the  royal  Fred- 
erick still  do,  have  all  along  jjrocei'ded,'  nanudy,  *  in  the  way 
of  adroit  Machiavelism,  as  skilful  g-amblers  in  this  world's 
business,  ardent  gatherers  of  this  world's  goods;  and  in  brief 
as  devout  worsliippers  of  lieelzebub,  the  grand  regulator  and 
re  warder  of  mortals  here  below.  Which  creed  we,  the  lioheu- 
zoUerns,  have  found,  and  I  still  find,  to  l)e  the  true  one ;  learn 
it  you,  my  prudent  Nephew,  and  let  all  men  learn  it.  By 
liolding  sti'adily  to  tliat,  and  working  late  and  «arly  in  sueh 
spirit,  we  are  come  to  what  you  now  see;  —  and  shall  atlvance 
still  farther,  if  it  jdeiise  Beelzel)ub,  wlio  is  generally  kind  to 
those  that  serve  him  well.'  Sueli  is  the  doctrine  of  tliis  im- 
pudent I'amphlet ;  '  original  Manuscripts '  of  which  are  still 
purchased  by  simple  persons,  —  who  have  then  n<ibly  offered 
tliem  to  me,  thrice  over,  gratis  or  nearly  so,  as  a  jirieelcss  curi- 
osity. A  new  printed  edition  of  which,  probably  the  fifth, 
has  appeared  within  few  years.  Simple  persons  consider  it  a 
curious  and  interesting  Document;  rather  ambiguous  in  origin 
perhaps,  but  probably  authentic  in  substance,  and  throwing 
unexpected  light  on  the  character  of  Frederick  whom  men  call 
the  Great.  In  which  new  light  they  are  willing  a  meritorious 
Editor  should  share. 

"  Who  wrote  that  Pamphlet  I  know  not,  and  am  in  no  con- 
dition to  guess.  A  certain  snappish  vivacity  (vctj  imlike  the 
style  of  Frederick  whom  it  personates)  ;  a  wearisome  grima- 
cing, gesticulating  malice  and  smartness,  approaching  or  reach- 
ing the  sad  dignity  of  what  is  called  *  wit '  in  modern  times  ; 
in  general  the  rottenness  of  matter,  and  the  epigrammatic 
unquiet  graciosity  of  manner  in  this  thing,  and  its  elaborately 
///human  turn  both  of  expression  and  of  thought,  are  visible 
characteristics  of  it.  Thought,  we  said,  — if  thought  it  can  be 
called  :  thought  all  hamstrung,  shrivelled  by  inveterate  rheu- 
matism, on  the  part  of  the  poor  ill-thriven  thinker ;  nay  tied 


CiiAP.  II.  MATINEES   DU  ROI  DE   PRUSSE.  167 

1440. 

(so  to  speak,  for  he  is  of  epigrammatic  turn  withal),  as  by 
cross  ropes,  right  shoulder  to  left  foot ;  and  forced  to  advance, 
hobbling  and  jerking  along,  in  that  sad  guise  :  not  in  the  way 
of  walk,  but  of  saltation  and  dance  ;  and  this  towards  a  false 
not  a  true  aim,  rather  no-whither  than  some-Avhither :  —  Here 
were  features  leading  one  to  think  of  an  illustrious  I'riuce  do 
Ligne  as  perhaps  concerned  in  the  affair.  The  lUbliographi- 
cal  Dictionaries,  producing  no  evidence,  name  quite  another 
person,  or  series  of  persons,^  highly  unmemorable  otherwise. 
Whereupon  you  proceed  to  said  other  person's  acknowledged 
WorAs  (as  they  are  called)  ;  and  find  there  a  style  bearing  no 
resemblance  whatever;  and  are  left  in  a  dubious  state,  if  it 
were  of  any  moment.  In  the  absence  of  proof,  1  am  unwilling 
to  charge  his  Highness  de  Ligne  with  such  an  action ;  and 
indeed  am  little  careful  to  be  acquainted  with  the  individual 
who  did  it,  who  could  and  would  do  it.  A  Prince  of  Coxcombs 
I  can  discern  him  to  have  been ;  capable  of  shining  in  the  eyes 
of  insincere  foolish  persons,  and  of  doing  detriment  to  them, 
not  benefit ;  a  man  without  reverence  for  truth  or  human  ex- 
cellence ;  not  knowing  in  fact  what  is  true  from  what  is  false, 
what  is  excellent  from  wluit  is  sham-excellent  and  at  the  top 
of  the  mode ;  an  apparently  polite  and  knowing  man,  but 
intrinsically  an  impudent,  dark  and  merely  modish-insolent 
man ;  —  who,  if  he  fell  in  with  Ehadamanthus  on  his  travels, 
would  not  escape  a  horse-whipping.  Him  we  will  willingly 
leave  to  that  beneficial  chance,  which  indeed  seems  a  certain 
one  sooner  or  later;  and  address  ourselves  to  consider  the 
theory  itself,  and  the  facts  it  pretends  to  be  grounded  on. 

"  As  to  the  theory,  I  must  needs  say,  nothing  can  be  falser, 
more  heretical  or  more  damnable.  My  own  poor  opinion,  and 
deep  conviction  on  that  subject  is  well  known,  this  long  while. 
And,  in  fact,  the  summary  of  all  I  have  believed,  and  have 
been  trying  as  I  could  to  teach  mankind  to  believe  again,  is 
even  that  same  opinion  and  conviction,  applied  to  all  provinces 

1  A  certain  "N.  de  Bonneville"  (afterwards  a  Revolutionary  spiritnal- 
mountebank,  for  some  time)  is  now  the  favorite  Name;  —  proves,  on  inves- 
tigation, to  be  an  impossible  one.  Barbier  (Dictionnaire  des  Anonymes),  in  a 
helpless  doubting  manner,  gives  still  others. 


168    THE  HOHENZOLLERXS  IN  BRANDENBURG.  B..ok  III. 

1-440. 

of  things.  Alas,  in  this  his  sad  theory  about  the  worki,  our 
l)Oor  impudent  Panijihleteer  is  by  no  means  singular  at  present ; 
nay  rather  he  has  in  a  manner  the  whole  practical  part  of  man- 
kind on  his  side  just  now ;  the  more  is  the  pity  for  us  all !  — 

"  It  is  very  certain,  if  Beelzebub  made  this  world,  our 
Pamphleteer,  and  the  huge  portion  of  mankind  that  follow 
liim,  are  right.  But  if  God  made  the  world ;  and  only  leads 
Beelzebub,  as  some  ugly  muzzled  bear  is  led,  a  longer  or  shorter 
temporary  dance  in  this  divine  world,  and  always  draws  him 
home  again,  and  i)eels  the  unjust  gains  off  him,  and  ducks  him 
in  a  certain  hot  Lake,  with  sure  intent  to  lodge  him  there  to 
all  eternity  at  last,  —  then  our  Pamphleteer,  and  the  huge 
portion  of  mankind  that  follow  him,  are  wrong. 

''  i\lore  1  will  not  say  ;  being  indeed  quite  tired  of  sjteullng 
on  that  subject.  Not  a  subject  which  it  concerns  me  to  si)eak 
of ;  much  as  it  concerns  me,  and  all  men,  to  know  the  truth  of 
it,  and  silently  in  every  hour  and  moment  to  do  said  truth. 
As  indeed  the  sacred  voice  of  their  own  soul,  if  they  listen, 
will  conclusively  a«lmonish  all  men  ;  and  truly  if  it  do  not, 
there  will  be  little  use  in  my  logic  to  them.  For  my  own 
share,  I  want  no  trade  with  men  who  need  to  be  convinced  of 
that  fact.  If  I  am  in  their  i)remises,  and  discover  such  a  thing 
of  them,  I  will  quit  their  premises ;  if  they  are  in  mine,  I 
will,  as  old  Samuel  advised,  count  my  spoons.  Ingenious  gen- 
tlemen who  believe  that  Beelzebub  made  this  world,  are  not  a 
class  of  gentlemen  I  can  get  profit  from.  Let  them  keep  at  a 
distance,  lest  mischief  fall  out  between  us.  They  are  of  the 
set  deserving  to  be  called  —  and  this  not  in  the  way  of  profane 
swearing,  but  of  solemn  wrath  and  pity,  I  say  of  virtuous  anger 
and  inexorable  reprobation  —  the  damned  set.  For,  in  very 
deed,  they  are  doomed  and  damned,  by  Nature's  oldest  Act 
of  Parliament,  they,  and  whatsoever  thing  they  do  or  say  or 
think ;  unless  they  can  escape  from  that  devil-element.  "Which 
I  still  hope  they  may !  — 

*'But  with  regard  to  the  facts  themselves,  'de  notre  maison,' 
I  take  leave  to  say,  they  too  are  without  basis  of  truth.  They 
are  not  so  false  as  the  theory,  because  nothing  can  in  falsity 
quite  equal  that.    ^  Notre  maison,^  this  Pamphleteer  may  learn, 


Chap.  II.  MATINEES  DU  ROI  DE   PRUSSE.  169 

1440. 

if  he  please  to  make  study  and  iiK^uiry  before  speaking,  did 
not  rise  by  worship  of  Beelzebub  at  all  in  this  world ;  but  by 
a  quite  opposite  line  of  conduct.  It  rose,  in  fact,  by  the  course 
which  all,  except  fools,  stockjobber  stags,  cheating  gamblers, 
forging  Pamphleteers  aud  other  temporary  creatures  of  the 
damned  sort,  have  found  from  of  old  to  be  the  one  way  of  per- 
manently rising  :  by  steady  service,  namely,  of  the  Opposite 
of  Beelzebub.  By  conforming  to  the  Laws  of  this  Universe ; 
instead  of  trying  by  pettifogging  to  evade  and  profitably  con- 
tratHct  them.  The  Hohenzollerns  too  have  a  History  still  ar- 
ticulate to  the  human  mind,  if  you  search  sufficiently  ;  and  this 
is  what,  even  with  some  emphasis,  it  will  teach  us  concerning 
their  adventures,  and  achievements  of  success  in  the  field  of 
life,  liesist  the  Devil,  good  reader,  and  he  will  flee  from 
you  !  "  —  »So  ends  our  indignant  friend. 

How  the  Hohenzollerns  got  their  big  Territories,  and  came 
to  Avhat  they  are  in  the  world,  will  be  seen.  Probably  they 
were  not,  any  of  them,  paragons  of  virtue.  They  did  not  walk 
in  altogether  speckless  Sunday  pumps,  or  nmch  clear-starched 
into  consciousness  of  the  moral  sublime ;  but  in  rugged  prac- 
tical boots,  and  by  such  roads  as  there  were.  Concerning  their 
moralities,  and  conformities  to  the  Laws  of  the  Koad  and  of  the 
Universe,  there  will  much  remain  to  be  argued  by  pamphlet- 
eers and  others.  Men  will  have  their  opinion.  Men  of  more 
wisdom  and  of  less ;  Apes  by  the  Dead-Sea  also  will  have  theirs. 
But  what  man  that  believed  in  such  a  Universe  as  that  of  this 
Dead-Sea  Pamphleteer  could  consent  to  live  in  it  at  all  ?  "Wlio 
that  believed  in  such  a  Universe,  and  did  not  design  to  live 
like  a  Papin's-Digester,  or  Forcus  Epicuri,  in  an  extremely 
ugly  manner  in  it,  could  avoid  one  of  two  things  :  Going 
rapidly  into  Bedlam,  or  else  blowing  his  brains  out  ?  "  It  will 
not  do  for  me  at  any  rate,  this  infinite  Dog-house ;  not  for  me, 
ye  Dryasdusts,  and  omnipotent  Dog-monsters  and  !Mud-gods, 
whoever  you  are.  One  honorable  thing  I  can  do :  take  leave 
of  you  and  your  Dog-establishment.     Enough ! "  — 


170    THE  IIOIIENZOLLERNS  IN  lilLVNDEXBURG.   Book  in. 

1442. 


CIIArXEK    J 1 1. 

KUKFORST    FRIEDRK  II    H. 

Till:  First  Friedrich's  successor  was  a  younger  son,  Friedrich 
II.;  wlio  lasted  till  1471,  alxjve  thirty  years;  and  proved  like- 
wist^  a  notable  manager  and  governor.  Very  capable  to  assert 
himself,  and  his  just  rights,  in  this  world.  He  wius  but  Twenty- 
seven  at  his  accession ;  but  the  Berlin  Burghers,  attempting  to 
take  some  lilx-rties  with  him,  found  he  w;is  old  enough.  He 
got  the  name  Imntirth.  Frietlrich  Ft-rmtin  JhutUiun,  from  his 
decisive  ways  then  and  afterwards.  He  h:ul  his  share  of  brab- 
bling with  intricate  litigant  neighlx)rs  ;  (piarrels  now  and  then 
not  to  be  settled  without  strokes.  His  worst  war  w;uj  with 
Pommern,  —  just  claims  disputed  there,  and  much  confused 
bickering,  sieging  :uul  harassing  in  consequence :  of  which 
quarrel  we  must  speak  anon.  It  w;us  he  who  first  built  the 
conspicuous  Schloss  or  Pahvce  at  Berlin,  having  got  the  ground 
for  it  (same  ground  still  coven-d  by  the  actual  fine  EdiHce, 
which  is  a  second  edition  of  Friedrich's)  from  the  repentant 
Burghers ;  and  took  up  his  chief  residence  there.* 

But  his  principal  aihievement  in  Brandenburg  History  is  his 
recovery  of  the  Province  called  the  Xeumark  to  that  Elector- 
ate. In  the  thriftless  Sigismund  times,  the  Neumark  had  been 
pledged,  had  been  sold;  Teutsch  Ritterdom,  to  whose  domin- 
ions it  lay  contiguous,  luid  purchased  it  with  money  down.  The 
Teutsch  Ritters  were  fallen  moneyless  enough  since  then ;  they 
offered  to  pledge  the  Xeumark  to  Friedrich,  who  accepted,  and 
advanced  the  sum  :  after  a  while  the  Teutsch  Ritters,  for  a 
small  farther  sum,  agreed  to  sell  Xeumark.^  Into  which  Trans- 
action, with  its  dates  and  circumstances,  let  us  cast  one  glance, 
for  our  behoof  afterwards.  The  Teutsch  Ritters  were  an  opu- 
lent domineering  Body  in  Sigismund's  early  lime ;  but  they  are 
1   U42-U.JI  (Xiculai,  i.  SI)  2  Michaelis,  i.  301. 


riiAP.  III.  KUKFUllST  FKIEDIUCH  II.  171 

1442. 

now  come  well  down  in  Friedi-ieh  II. 's  !  And  are  coming  ever 
lower.  Sinking  steadily,  or  with  desperate  attempts  to  rise, 
which  oidy  increase  the  speed  downwards,  ever  since  that  fatal 
Tannenberg  Business,  15th  July,  1110.  Here  is  the  sad  prog- 
ress of  their  descent  to  the  bottom ;  divided  into  three  stages 
or  periods  :  — 

^^ Period  First  is  of  Thirty  years:  1410-1440.  A  peace  with 
Poland  soon  followed  that  Defeat  of  Tannenberg ;  humiliating 
peace,  with  mulct  in  money,  and  slightly  in  territory,  attached 
to  "it.  Which  again  was  soon  followed  by  war,  and  ever  again ; 
each  new  peace  more  humiliating  tlian  its  foregoer.  Teutsch 
Order  is  steadily  sinking,  —  into  debt,  among  other  things; 
driven  to  severe  tinance-measiu-es  (ultinnitely  even  to  'debase 
its  coin  '),  which  produce  irritation  enough.  Toland  is  gradu- 
ally edging  itself  into  the  territories  and  the  interior  troubles 
of  Preussen;  prefatory  to  greater  operations  thiit  lie  aliciul 
there. 

''  Second  Period,  of  Fourteen  years.  So  it  had  gone  on,  from 
bad  to  worse,  till  144() ;  when  the  general  population,  through 
its  Heads,  the  Landed  Gentry  and  the  Towns,  wearied  out 
with  fiscal  and  other  oppressions  from  its  domineering  Ritter- 
dom  brought  now  to  such  a  pinch,  began  everywhere  to  stir 
themselves  into  vocal  complaint.  Complaint  emphatic  enough  : 
*  Where  will  you  find  a  man  that  has  not  suffered  injury  in 
liis  rights,  perhaps  in  his  person  ?  Our  friends  they  have  in- 
vited as  guests,  and  under  show  of  hospitality  have  murdered 
them.  Men,  for  the  sake  of  their  beautiful  wives,  have  been 
thrown  into  the  river  like  dogs,'  —  and  enough  of  the  like  sort.^ 
No  want  of  complaint,  nor  of  complainants :  Town  of  Thorn, 
Town  of  Dantzig,  Kulm,  all  manner  of  Towns  and  Baronages, 
proceeded  now  to  form  a  Bund,  or  general  Covenant  for  com- 
plaining ;  to  repugn,  in  hotter  and  hotter  form,  against  a 
domineering  Ritterdom  with  back  so  broken;  in  fine,  to  col- 
league with  Poland, — what  was  most  ominous  of  all.  Baron- 
age, Burgherage,  they  were  German  mostly  by  blood,  and 
by  culture  were  wholly  German ;  but  preferred  Poland  to  a 

^  Voigt,  vii.  747 ;  qaoting  evidently,  not  an  express  manifesto,  but  one 
manuf;u.tiired  bv  the  old  Chroniclers. 


172    THE  IIOIIENZOLLERNS  IN  BRANDENBURG.    n<>oK  lir. 

U44. 

Tt'utseli  Kittertloiu  of  that  nature.  Notliing  but  brabblings, 
sculHiugs,  ubjurgatious  ;  a  great  outbreak  ripening  itsi'lf. 
Teutscli  IvitttTilum  h;u>  to  hire  soldiers  ;  no  money  to  })ay 
them.  It  was  in  these  sad  yciirs  that  the  Teutsch  Kitterdom, 
fallen  moneyless,  offered  to  pleilge  the  Noumark  to  our  Kur- 
fiirstj  1444,  tluit  operation  waa  consummated.'  All  this  goes 
on,  in  hotter  an«l  hotter  form,  for  ten  years  longi^r. 

'*  I'triud  Third  U^gins,  early  in  1454,  with  aii  imj)ortant 
special  catastrophe ;  and  ends,  in  the  Thirteenth  year  after, 
with  a  still  more  imp«»rtant  universal  one  of  the  same  nature. 
I'russiau  Bund,  or  Anti-Opi»ression  Covenant  of  the  Towns  and 
Landed  Gentry,  rising  in  temi)erature  for  fourteen  years  at 
this  rate,  reached  at  last  the  igniting  pf)int,  and  burst  mto  lire. 
February  4th,  ll.'Vt,  tlu'  Town  of  Thorn,  darling  iirst-child  of 
Teutsch  Kitterdom, — child  l'L'3  years  old  at  this  time,*  and 
grown  very  big,  and  now  very  angry,  —  suddenly  took  its  old 
parent  by  the  throat,  so  to  speak,  and  hurled  him  out  to  the 
dogs  ;  to  the  extraneous  I'olacks  first  of  all.  Town  of  Thorn, 
namely,  sent  that  day  its  *  Letter  of  denunciation '  to  the 
Hochmeister  over  at  ^larienburg ;  seized  in  a  day  or  two  more 
the  Ilochmeister's  Official  Envoys,  Dignitaries  of  the  Order ; 
led  them  through  the  streets,  amid  universal  storm  of  execni- 
tions,  hootings  and  unclean  j>rojectiles,  straight  to  jail ;  and 
besieged  the  Hochmeister's  liurg  {Bastille  of  Thorn,  with  a 
few  Hitters  in  it),  all  the  artillery  and  all  tlie  throats  and 
hearts  of  the  place  raging  deliriously  ui>on  it.  So  that  the 
poor  Ritters,  who  had  no  chance  in  resisting,  were  in  few  days 
obliged  to  surrender ;  •  had  t<i  come  out  in  bare  jerkin ;  and 
Thorn  ignominiously  dismissed  them  into  space  forevermore, 
—  with   actual   'kicks,'  I  have  read   in  some  Books,  though 

^  Pauli,  ii.  187,  —  does  not  name  the  Bum. 

•  "  Fonndeil  1231,  as  a  Mro<j«lcn  Burg,  just  across  the  river,  on  the  Heathen 
side,  mainly  round  the  stem  of  an  iniuu-nse  old  Oak  that  grew  handy  there,  — 
Seven  Barnes  always  on  the  river  (Weichsol),  to  fly  to  our  own  side  if  (juite 
overwlielnied."  Ckik  and  Sei-en  Barges  is  still  the  Town'.s-Arms  of  Thorn. 
See  Kohler,  Munzbelust'iqnnn^n,  li^sW.  107;  qnotjng  Dushnrg  (a  Priest  of  the 
Order)  and  his  old  Chronica  Terr(t  PrusriiT,  written  in  1.'326. 

^  8th  February,  1454, says  Voigt  (viii.  361) ;  16th,  says  Kohler  {Miinzbelusti- 
gungen,  xxii.  110). 


CnAP.  III.  KUHFURST   FRIEDRICII   II.  173 

J  455. 

others  veil  that  sad  feature.  Thorn  threw  out  its  old  parent 
in  this  manner ;  swore  fealty  to  the  King  of  Poland ;  and  in- 
vited other  Towns  and  Knightages  to  follow  the  example.  To 
whieh  all  were  willing,  wherever  able. 

"  War  hereupon,  wliieh  blazed  up  over  Preussen  at  large,  — 
Prussian  Covenant  and  King  of  Poland  cersiis  Teutseh  Kitter- 
dom,  —  and  lasted  into  the  thirteenth  year,  before  it  could  go 
out  again ;  out  by  lack  of  fuel  mainly.  One  of  the  fellest 
wats  on  record,  especially  for  burning  and  ruining;  above 
'3(10,000  fighting-men '  are  calculated  to  have  perished  in  it; 
and  of  towns,  villages,  farmstea^ls,  a  eijjher  which  makes  tlu3 
fancy,  as  it  were,  blaek  and  ashy  altogether.  Kitterdom 
showed  no  lack  of  lighting  energy  ;  but  that  could  not  save  it, 
in  the  ])ass  things  were  got  to.  Enormous  lack  of  wisdom,  of 
reality  and  human  veracity,  there  had  long  been ;  and  the  hour 
was  now  come.  Finance  went  out,  to  the  last  coin.  Large 
mercenary  armies  all  along ;  and  in  the  end  not  the  color  of 
money  to  jiay  them  with;  mercenaries  became  desperate;  'be- 
sieged the  Hochmeister  and  his  Kitters  in  Marienburg;'  — 
finally  sold  the  Country  they  held;  formally  made  it  over  to 
the  King  of  Poland,  to  get  their  pay  out  of  it.  Hochmeister 
had  to  see  sueh  things,  and  say  little.  Peace,  or  extinction 
for  want  of  fuel,  came  in  the  year  1400.  Poland  got  to  itself 
the  whole  of  that  tine  German  Country,  henceforth  called 
'  West  Preussen'  to  distinguish  it,  which  goes  from  the  left 
bank  of  the  Weichsel  to  the  borders  of  Prandenburg  and  Xeu- 
mark;  — would  have  got  Neumark  too,  had  not  Kurfurst 
Friedrich  been  there  to  save  it.  The  Teutseh  Order  had  to 
go  across  the  Weichsel,  ignominiously  driven ;  to  content 
itself  with  'East  Preussen,'  the  Ktinigsberg-Memel  country, 
and  even  to  do  homage  to  Poland  for  that.  Which  latter  was 
the  bitterest  clause  of  all :  but  it  could  not  be  helped,  more 
than  the  others.  In  this  manner  did  its  revolted  children 
fling  out  Teutseh  Eitterdom  ignominiously  to  the  dogs,  to  the 
Polacks,  first  of  all,  —  Thorn,  the  eldest  child,  leading  off  or 
setting  the  example." 

And  so  the  Teutseh  Ritters  are  sunk  beyond  retrieval ;  and 
West  Preussen,   called  subsequently   ''Royal  Preussen,"  not 


174    THE  IIOIIENZOLLEIINS   IN    HKANDENBUKG.  Bo..k  III. 

libb. 

having  homage  to  pay  as  the  '*  Ducal "  or  East  Preussen  hatl, 
is  German  no  longer,  but  Tolish,  Solavic ;  not  prospering  by 
the  change.'  And  all  that  line  German  country,  reduced  to 
rebel  against  its  unwise  parent,  was  cut  away  by  the  Polish 
Bword,  and  remained  with  Poland,  which  did  not  prove  very 
wise  either ;  till  —  till,  in  tlie  Year  1773,  it  was  cut  back  by 
the  German  sword !  All  reatlers  have  heard  of  the  I'artition 
of  Poland  :  but  of  the  Partition  of  Preussen,  307  years  before, 
all  have  not  heard. 

It  was  in  the  second  year  of  that  final  trilmlation,  marked 
above  as  Period  Third,  that  the  Teutsch  Kitters,  famishing 
for  money,  completed  the  Neumark  transaction  with  Kurfurst 
Friedrich ;  Xeumark,  alrea<ly  pawned  U)  him  ten  yeai-s  before, 
they  in  14r)."»,  for  a  small  farther  sum,  agreed  to-  sell ;  and  he, 
long  carefully  steering  towards  such  an  issue,  and  dexterously 
keeping  out  of  the  main  broil,  failed  not  to  buy.  Friedrich 
could  thenceforth,  on  his  own  score,  protect  the  Neumark ; 
keep  up  an  invisible  but  impenetrable  wall  between  it  and  the 
neighboring  anarchic  conflagrations  of  thirteen  years ;  and  the 
Neumark  has  ever  since  remained  with  Brandenburg,  its  origi- 
nal owner. 

As  to  Friedrich's  Pomeranian  quarrel,  this  is  the  figure  of 
it.  Here  is  a  scene  from  Rentsch,  which  falls  out  in  Fried- 
rich's  time  ;  and  which  brouglit  much  battling  ami  broiling  to 
him  and  his.  Symbolical  withal  of  much  that  befell  in  Bran- 
denburg, from  first  to  last.  Under  the  Hohenzollerns  as  before, 
Brandenburg  grew  by  aggregation,  by  assimilation ;  and  we  see 
here  how  difficult  the  process  often  was. 

Pommern  (Pomerania),  long  Wendish,  but  peaceably  so  since 
the  time  of  Albert  the  Bear,  and  growing  ever  more  German, 
hatl,  in  good  part,  according  to  Friedrich's  notion,  if  there  were 
force  in  liuman  Treaties  and  Imperial  Laws,  fallen  fairly  to 
Brandenburg,  —  that  is  to  say,  the  half  of  it,  Stettin-Pommern 

^  What  Thorn  had  sunk  to,  out  of  its  palmy  state,  see  in  Nanke's  Wnn- 
derungm  durch  Preussen  (}Ianibur<;  &  Altona,  ISOO),  ii.  177-200  :  — a  pleasant 
little  Book,  treatinjT  mainly  of  Natural  History;  Imt  drawing  you, by  its  inuo 
cent  simj))iiity  and  geniality,  to  read  with  thanks  whatever  is  in  it. 


Chap.  III.  KURFURST    FRIEDKICIl    II.  175 

1404. 

hail  fairly  fallen,  —  in  the  year  1464,  when  Duke  Otto  of 
Stettin,  the  last  Wendish  Duke,  died  without  heirs.  In  that 
case  by  many  bargains,  some  with  bloody  crowns,  it  had  been 
Settled,  If  the  "Wendish  Dukes  died  out,  the  country  was  to 
fall  to  Brandenburg  ;  —  and  here  they  were  dead.  "  At  Duke 
« )tto's  burial,  accordingly,  in  the  High  Church  of  Stettin,  when 
tlie  cutlin  was  lowered  into  its  place,  the  Stettin  r.iirgermeister, 
Albrecht  Glinde,  took  sword  and  helmet,  and  threw  the  same 
into»the  grave,  in  token  that  the  Line  was  extinct.  But  Franz 
von  Eiehsted,''  apjiarently  another  Burgher  instructed  for  the 
nonce,  "jumped  into  the  grave,  and  jtiekcd  them  out  again  ; 
alleging,  No,  the  Dukes  of  If'o/ f/<tsf -Voiumern  were  of  kin  ; 
these  tokens  we  must  send  to  his  Grace  at  Wolgast,  with 
oiler  of  our  homage,  said  Franz  von  Eiehsted.''*  —  And  sent 
they  were,  and  accepted  liy  his  Griu-e.  And  i>erhaps  half-a- 
score  of  bargains,  with  bh)ody  crowns  to  some  of  them  ;  and 
yet  other  chances,  and  centuries,  with  the  extinction  of  new 
Lilies,  —  had  to  supervene,  before  even  Stettiu-l'ommern,  and 
that  in  no  complete  stiite,  could  be  got.*  As  to  Pommern  at 
large,  I'onnnern  not  denied  to  be  due,  after  such  extinction 
and  re-extinction  of  native  Ducal  Liues,  did  not  fall  home  for 
centuries  more  ;  and  what  struggles  and  inextricable  armed- 
litigations  there  were  for  it,  readers  of  Brandenburg-History 
too  wearisomely  know.  The  process  of  assimilation  not  the 
least  of  an  easy  one  !  — 

This  Friedrich  was  second  son  :  his  Father's  outlook  for 
him  had,  at  first,  been  towards  a  Polish  Princess  and  the 
crown  of  Poland,  which  was  not  then  so  elective  as  after- 
wai'ds :  and  with  such  view  his  early  breeding  had  been 
chiefly  in  Poland ;  Johann,  the  eldest  son  and  heir-apparent, 
helping  his  Father  at  home  in  the  mean  while.  But  these 
Polish  outlooks  went  to  nothing,  the  young  Princess  having 
died ;  so  that  Friedrich  came  home  ;  possessed  merely  of  the 
Polish  language,  and  of  what  talents  the  gods  had  given  him, 

1  Eentsch,  p.  110  (whose  printer  has  put  his  date  awry) ;  Stenzel  (i.  233) 
calls  the  man  "  Loren:  Eikstetten,  a  resolute  Gentleman." 
-  1648,  by  Treaty  of  Westphalia. 


170     Tin:   IIolIENZOLLERXS   IX    HRANDEXBURG.    Book  III. 

1471. 

which  were  considerable.  And  now,  in  the  mean  while,  Johaun, 
who  at  one  time  promised  well  in  practical  life,  had  taken  to 
Alchemy  ;  and  was  busy  with  crucibles  and  speculations,  to  a 
degree  that  seemed  questionable.  Father  Friedrich,  therefore, 
had  to  interfere,  and  deal  with  this  ".luliann  the  Alchciuist '' 
{Johannes  Alcheniista,  so  the  Books  still  name  him) ;  who  loy- 
ally renounced  the  Electorship,  at  his  Father's  bidding,  in 
favor  of  Friedrich ;  accepted  liaireuth  (b<;tter  half  of  the 
Culmbach  Territory)  for  apanage  ;  and  there  peacefully  dis- 
tilled and  sublimateil  at  discretion ;  the  govermuent  there 
being  an  easier  task,  and  litter  for  a  soft  speculative  Herr. 
A  third  Brother,  Albert  by  name,  got  Anspacli,  on  the  Father's 
decease  ;  very  capable  to  do  any  fighting  there  might  be  occa^ 
sion  for,  in  Culinl)ach. 

As  to  the  Burggrafshij),  it  was  now  done,  all  but  the  Title. 
The  First  Friedrich,  once  he  was  got  to  be  Elector,  wisely 
l)arted  with  it.  Tlie  First  Friedricli  foun<l  his  Elcftorship 
liad  dreadfully  real  duties  for  him,  and  that  this  of  the  liurg- 
grafship  ha*l  fallen  mostly  obsolete ;  so  he  sold  it  to  the  NUrn- 
lK>rgers  for  a  round  sum  :  only  the  Principalities  and  Territories 
are  retained  in  tliat  quarter.  About  which  too,  and  their  feu- 
dal duties,  boundaries  and  tolls,  with  a  jealous  litigious  Niirn- 
l)erg  for  neighlM)r,  there  at  length  came  quarrelling  enough. 
]iut  AllK'rt  the  third  Brother,  over  at  Anspacli,  took  charge 
of  all  that ;  and  nothing  of  it  fell  in  Johann's  way. 

The  good  Alchemist  died,  —  performed  his  last  sublimation, 
poor  man,  —  six  or  seven  years  Ix^fore  his  Brother  Friedrich  ; 
age  then  sixty-three.'  Friedrich,  witli  his  Iron  Teeth  and 
faculties,  only  lield  out  till  fifty-eight,  —  10th  February,  1471. 
The  manner  of  his  end  was  peculiar.  In  that  War  with 
Pommern,  he  sat  besieging  a  Pomeranian  town,  Uckermiinde 
the  name  of  it :  when  at  dinner  one  day,  a  cannon-ball  ])lunged 
down  upon  the  table,^  with  such  a  crash  as  we  can  fancy ;  — 
which  greatly  confused  the  nerves  of  Friedrich  ;  much  injured 
his  hearing,  and  even  his  memory  thenceforth.  In  a  few 
months  afterwards  he  resigned,  in  favor  of  his  Successor ;  re- 
tired to  Plassenburg,  and  there  died  in  about  a  year  more, 
1  14th  November,  )464.  «  Michaelis,  i.  303. 


Chap.  IV.  KURFURST  ALBERT  ACHILLES.  177 

1471.- 


CIIArXER   IV. 

KURFUU.ST    ALIJICliT    ACHILLK.S,    AND    III."^    SUCCESSOR. 

Xeitheh  Friediich  iiur  Juh;uui  lult  uthcr  than  diiughU-rs  : 
so  that  tlie  united  Heritage,  Biaudeuburg  and  Culiubacli  both, 
came  now  to  the  third  Brother,  Albert;  wlio  has  been  in  Ciilnx- 
baeh  tht'se  many  years  already.  A  tall,  iiery,  tough  old  gen- 
tleman, of  formidable  talent  for  fighting,  who  was  called  the 
"  Achilles  of  Germany  "  in  his  ilay  ;  being  then  a  very  bla:sing 
far-seen  eharaeter,  dim  as  h(^  has  now  grown. ^  This  Albert 
Achilles  was  the  Third  Elector ;  Ancestor  he  of  all  the  Bran- 
denburg and  Culmbach  Hohenzollern  Princes  that  have  since 
figured  in  the  world.  Alter  him  there  is  no  break  or  shift 
in  the  succession,  down  to  the  little  Friedrich  now  born  ;  — 
Friedrich  the  old  Grandfather,  First  Kliifj,  was  the  Twelfth 
Kurfurst. 

We  have  to  say,  they  followed  generall}'  in  their  Ancestors' 
stops,  andJiad  success  of  the  like  kind,  more  or  less;  Hohen- 
zollerns  all  of  them,  by  character  and  beha^^o^  as  well  as 
by  descent.  No  lack  of  quiet  energy,  of  thrift,  sound  sense. 
There  was  likewise  solid  fair-jilay  in  general,  no  founding  of 
yourself  on  ground  that  will  not  carry; — and  there  was  in- 
stant, gentle  but  inexorable,  crushing  of  mutiny,  if  it  showed 
itself ;  which,  after  the  Second  Elector,  or  at  most  the  Third, 
it  had  altogether  ceased  to  do.  Young  Friedrich  II.,  upon 
whom  those  Berlin  Burghers  had  tried  to  close  their  gates, 
till  he  should  sign  some  "Capitulation"  to  their  mind,  got 
from  them,  and  not  quite  in  ill-humor,  that  name  Ironteeth :  — 
"  Not  the  least  a  Nose-of-wax,  this  one  !  No  use  trying  here, 
then!  "  —  which,  with  the  humor  attached  to  it,  is  itself  symbol- 
ical of  Friedrich  and  these  Hohenzollern  Sovereigns.  Albert, 
his  Brother,  had  plenty  of  fighting  in  his  time :  but  it  was  in 

»  Bom  1414  :  Kurfiirst.  1471-1486. 

VOL.  V. 


178     Tin:    IIOIIENZOLLERNS   IX    15KANDEXBURG.    Book  III. 

1471. 

the  Nurnberg  and  other  distant  regions ;  no  fighting,  or  hardly 

any,  needed  in  Brandenburg  hencelorth. 

\Vith  iS'uruberg,  and  the  Ex-Burggralship  there,  now  when 
a  new  generation  began  to  tug  at  the  loo.se  clauses  of  that  Bar- 
gain, with  Friedrieh  I.,  and  all  Free-Towns  were  going  high 
upon  their  privih'gt's,  Albert  had  at  one  time  much  trouble, 
and  at  k'n;;th  actual  furious  ^^'ar ;  —  other  Free-Towns  counte- 
nancing and  assisting  Nurnberg  in  the  affair ;  numerous  petty 
Brinccs,  feudal  Lords  of  the  vicinity,  doing  the  like  by  Albert. 
Twenty  years  ago,  all  this  ;  and  it  did  not  last,  so  furious 
was  it.  "  Eight  victories,"  they  count  on  Albert's  part,  — 
furious  successful  skirmishes,  call  them;  —  in  one  of  which,  I 
rememlx'r,  Albert  jdunged  in  alone,  his  Ritters  being  rather 
shy  ;  and  laid  about  him  hugely,  hanging  by  a  standard  ho 
had  taken,  till  his  life  was  nearly  beaten  out.*  Eight  viittories  ; 
and  also  one  defeat,  wherein  Albert  got  captured,  and  hatl  to 
ransom  himself.  Tlic  captor  was  one  Kuuz  of  Kauffungen, 
the  Kiirnberg  hired  (Jeneral  at  the  time:  a  man  known  to 
some  readers  for  his  Sti^aling  of  the  Saxon  Princes  (Prinzen- 
rnub,  they  call  it) ;  a  feat  which  cost  Kunz  his  hea<l.^  All)ert, 
however,  prevailed  in  the  end,  as  he  was  ai>t  to  do ;  and  got 
his  Niirnbergers  fixed  to  clauses  satisfactory  to  him. 

In  his  early  days  he  had  fought  against  Boles,  Bohemians 
and  others,  as  Imperial  general.  He  was  much  concerned, 
all  along,  in  those  abstruse  armed-litigations  of  the  Austrian 
House  with  its  dependencies;  and  diligently  helped  the 
Kaiser,  —  Friedrich  III.,  rather  a  weakish,  but  an  eager  and 
greedy  Kaiser,  —  through  most  of  them.  That  inextricable 
Hungarian-Bohemian-Polish  Donnyhrnok  (so  we  may  call  it) 
which  Austria  had  on  hand,  one  of  Sigismund's  bequests  to 
Austria ;  distressingly  tumultuous  Donnybrook,  which  goes 
from  1440  to  1471,  fighting  in  a  fierce  confused  manner;  — 
the  Anti-Turk  Hunniades,  the  Anti-Austrian  Corvinus,  the 
royal  Majesties  George  Podiebrad,  Ladislaus  Posthuvnus,  Lud- 
wig  Ohne  Haut  (Ludwig  Xo-Skin),  and  other  Ludwigs,  Ladis« 
lauses  and  Vladislauses,  striking  and  getting  struck  at  such  a 

1  1449  (Rentsch,  y-  399). 

2  Ca«lyle's  Misrellanies  (Xondon,  1869),  vi.  §  Primenranb. 


OiA.-.  IV.  Kl'KFUKST   .\LBEKT  ACHILLES.  179 

1481. 

rate  :  —  Albeit  was  generally  what  we  may  call  ohief-eonstable 
ill  all  that ;  giving  a  knock  here  and  then  one  there,  in  the 
Kaiser's  name.^  Almost  from  boyhood,  he  had  learned  soldier- 
ing, which  he  had  never  afterwards  leisure  to  forget.  Great 
store  of  fighting  he  had, — say  half  a  century  of  it,  off  and 
on,  during  the  seventy  and  odd  years  he  lasted  in  this  world. 
With  the  Donnybrook  we  spoke  of;  with  the  Niirnbergers; 
with  the  Dukes  of  Uavaria  (endless  bickerings  with  these 
Dukes,  Ludwig  Beardi/,  Ludwig  Siqjerbiis,  Ludwig  Gibbosus  or 
Hunchback,  against  them  and  about  them,  on  his  own  and  the 
Kaiser's  score) ;  also  with  the  French,  already  clutching  at 
Lorraine;  also  witli  Charles  the  Rash  of  lUirgundy  ;  —  lastly 
with  the  liishop  of  Bamberg,  who  got  him  excommunicated 
and  would  not  bury  the  dead. 

Kurfiirst  All)ert's  Letter  on  this  last  emergency,  to  his  Vice- 
gerent in  Culinbach,  is  a  famed  Piece  still  extant  (date  1481)  ;* 
and  his  plan  in  such  emergency,  is  a  simple  and  likely  one  . 
*'  Carry  tlu^  dead  bodies  to  tlie  Parson's  house  ;  let  him  see 
whether  he  will  not  bury  them  by  and  by  I  —  One  must  fence 
off  the  Devil  by  the  Holy  Cross,"  says  Albert,  —  appeal  to 
Heaven  with  what  honest  mother-wit  Heaven  has  vouchsafed 
one,  means  Albert.  "  These  fellows  "  (the  Priests),  continues 
he,  "  would  fain  have  the  temporal  sword  as  well  as  the 
spiritual.  Had  God  wished  there  should  be  only  one  sword, 
he  could  have  contrived  that  as  well  as  the  two.  He  surely 
did  not  want  for  intellect  (Er  war  gar  e'ui  weiser  3Ia7m),"  — 
want  of  intellect  it  clearly  was  not !  —  In  short,  they  had  to 
bury  the  dead,  and  do  reason  ;  and  Albert  hustled  himself  well 
clear  of  this  broil,  as  he  had  done  of  many. 

Battle  enough,  poor  man,  with  steel  and  other  weapons :  — 
and  we  see  he  did  it  with  sharp  insight,  good  forecast ;  now 
and  then  in  a  wildly  leonine  or  aquiline  manner.  A  tall  hook- 
nosed man,  of  lean,  sharp,  rather  taciturn  aspect ;  nose  and 
look  are  very  aquiline  ;  and  there  is  a  cloudy  sorrow  in  those 
old  eyes,   which  seems   capable   of  sudden    effulgence  to  a 

1  Hormavr,  ii.  138,  140  (§  Hunyady   Corvin);  Rentsch,  pp.  389^22;  M^ 
chaelis,  i.  304-313. 
a  Rcntsch,  p.  409. 


ISO    Tin:   llollKNZULLEKNS   IN    I'.KANDENBUUG.    «.«'k  III. 

nati. 

dangerous  extent.      He  was  a  considerable  diplomatist  too: 

very  girat  with  tlio  Kaiser,  Did  Friedrich  III.  (.M;ix\s  fatluT, 

Charles  V.'s  ChH'at-Grandfathcr)  ; '  and  managed  many  things 

for  him.     Managed  to  get  tlie  thrice-lovely    Heiress   of   the 

Netherlands   and   IJurgundy,    Daughter   of  that   Charles  the 

Kiush,    with   her  Seventeen    Trovinees,  for  Max,'' — who  was 

thought  thereui)on  by  everybody  to  be  the  luckiest  man  alive ; 

though  the  issue  eontrailicted  it  before  long. 

Kurfurst  AlU'rt  died  in  14N»,  Maieh  11,  aged  seventy-two. 
It  was  some  mouths  after  liosworth  Fight,  where  our  Crooked 
Kiehard  got  his  ijuietus  here  in  England  and  brought  the  Wars 
of  the  liuses  to  their  finale  :  —  a  little  ehnbby  Uuv,  the  son  of 
l>oor  parents  at  Eisleben  in  S:ucony,  Martin  Luther  the  name 
of  him,  was  hjoking  into  this  abtruse  I'nivense,  with  those 
strange  eyes  of  his,  in  what  rough  woollen  or  linsey-woolsey 
short-elothes  we  do  not  know.* 

Albert's  funeral  was  very  grand ;  the  Kaiser  himself,  and 
all  the  .Magnates  of  the  Diet  and  lleieh  atti-nding  him  from 
Frankfurt  to  his  hist  resting-place,  many  miles  of  road.  For 
he  dieil  at  the  Diet,  in  Frank furt-t)n-Mayn  ;  having  faUen  ill 
there  while  bu.sy,  —  |>erhaps  Ukj  bu.sy  for  that  age,  in  the  harsh 
sjiring  weather,  —  electing  Prince  Maximilian  ("lucky  Max,*' 
who  will  be  Kaiser  too  Ixjfore  long,  and  is  already  deep  in  ///- 
luck,  tragical  and  other  to  Im*  King  of  the  Romans.  The 
old  Kaiser  ha<l  "  looked  in  on  him  at  Onolzl)ach  "  (Anspach), 
and  brought  him  along;  such  a  man  could  not  lie  wanting  on 
such  an  occasion.  A  man  who  '•  perhajw  did  more  for  the 
German  Empire  than  for  the  Electorate  of  Brandenburg," 
hint  some.  The  Kaiser  himself,  Friedrich  III.,  was  now  get- 
ting old  ;  anxious  to  see  Max  secure,  and  to  set  his  house  in 
order.    A  somewhat  anxious,  croaky,  close-tisted,  ineffectual  old 

'  IIow  adiiiimMo  .\ll>ort  is,  not  to  say  "almost  divine,"  to  the  Kaiser's 
thou  Soorctarv,  oily-mouthed  ^l^nea.*«  Sylvius,  afterwards  I'ope.  Uentsoh  ran 
testify  (pp.  401,  586):  i]uotin£j  ^T'ne.xs's  enlojiies  and  jjossipries  {Ilistnn'a 
lirrnm  Frf<lirici  Im/M miorls,  I  conclude,  though  no  book  is  named).  Oily 
diligent  ..-Enejus,  in  his  own  young  years  an<l  in  All)ert's  prime,  had  of  course 
seen  much  of  this  "  miracle  "  of  Arms  and  Art,  —  "miracle"  and  "almost 
divine,"  so  to  speak. 

-  1477  3  Roni  10th  XovemlK^r,  1483. 


1 


CriM-.  IV.  KUIIFURST   ALBERT   ACHILLES.  181 

I4y'j. 

KaisiT ;  ^  distinguished  by  his  luck  in  getting  Max  so  provided 
fur,  and  bringing  the  Seventeen  Provinces  of  the  Netherhmds 
to  his  House,  lie  is  the  iirst  of  tlie  llapsburg  Kaisers  who 
had  wliat  has  since  been  called  the  *'  Austrian  lip  "  —  protrusive 
under-jaw,  with  heavy  lip  tlisinelined  to  shut.  He  got  it  from 
his  Mother,  antl  betpieathed  it  in  a  marked  manner;  his  ])os- 
terity  to  this  day  bearing  traces  of  it.  Mother's  name  was 
Cimburgis,  a  Polish  Princess,  "Duke  of  Masovia's  daughter;" 
a  ladv  wlio  liad  something  of  the  Muu/tuschc  in  her,  in  char- 
acter as  w»'ll  as  mouth.  —  In  ohl  Albert,  the  poor  old  Kaiser 
has  lost  his  right  hand;  and  no  doubt  muses  sadly  as  lie  rides 
in  the  funeral  procession. 

Albert  is  buried  at  Heilsbronn  in  Frankenland,  among  his 
Ancestors,  —  burial  in  Urandenburg  not  yet  i-ommon  for  these 
new  Kurliu'sts  :  —  his  skull,  in  an  after-time,  used  to  bo 
shown  there,  laid  on  the  lid  of  the  tomb;  skull  marvellous 
for  strength,  and  for  '•  having  no  visible  sutures,''  says 
lientsch.  I'ious  Brandeid)urg  OHieiality  at  length  put  an  end 
to  that  jtrofanation,  and  restored  the  skull  to  its  place,  — 
Tuarvellous  enough,  with  what  had  once  dwelt  in  it,  whether 
it  had  sutures  or  not. 

Juhinn  the   Cicero  is  Fourth  Krirf iirst,  and  leaves   Two 
notable  >S'on«. 

Albert's  eldest  Son,  the  Fourth  Kurfiirst,  was  Johannes 
Cicero  (1480-141)9)  :  Johannes  wa.s  his  natural  name,  to  which 
the  epithet  "  Cicero  of  Germany  (Cicero  Germaniw) "  was 
added  by  an  admiring  public.  He  hatl  commonly  adminis- 
tered the  Electorate  during  his  Father's  absences  ;  and  done 
it  with  credit  to  himself.  He  was  an  active  man,  nowise 
deficient  as  a  Governor ;  creditably  severe  on  highway  rob- 
bers, for  one  thing,  —  destroys  you  *•  fifteen  baronial  robber- 
towers  "  at  a  stroke  ;  was  also  concerned  in  the  Hungarian- 
Bohemian  DortJii/brooJ:,  and  did  that  also  well.  But  nothing 
struck  a  discerning  public  like  the  talent  he  had  for  speak- 

1  See  Kohler  (Miinzbelustigungen,  vi.  393-401 ;  ii.  89-96,  &c.)  for  a  vivid 
account  of  him. 


1^-   Tin;  ii()Iiknz<>i.ij:i:ns  in  iu:andenbuk(;.  i;<>..k  hi. 

ing.  Spoke  '-four  hours  at  a  stretch  in  Kiiiser  Max's  Diets, 
in  elegantly  flowin;:?  Latin;"  with  a  lair  share  of  meaning, 
too ;  —  and  had  Vmrsts  of  i>arlianu'ntary  eloquence  in  him 
that  were  astonishing  to  hear.  A  tall,  square-headed  man,  of 
erect,  clieerfully  coniposed  aspect,  head  flung  rather  back  if 
anything:  his  bursts  of  i)arlianient;iry  eloquence,  once  glorious 
as  the  day,  procured  him  the  name  "Johannes  Curro;"  aaid 
that  is  wliat  remains  of  them :  for  they  are  sunk  now,  irre- 
trievable he  and  they,  into  the  kdly  of  eternal  Night;  the 
liiKil  resting-place,  I  do  i>erceive,  of  much  Ciceronian  ware  in 
this  world.  Apparently  he  hail,  like  some  of  his  Descendants, 
what  would  now  Ix'  called  "distinguished  literary  talents,*'  — 
insignificant  to  mankind  ami  us.  I  lind  he  was  likewise  called 
der  (Irosse,  "John  the  Gnat  ;"  but  on  investigation  it  [troves 
to  l)e  mere  "  John  the  Biy"  a  name  coming  from  his  tall 
stature  and  vdtimate   fatness  of  IxHly. 

For  the  rest,  he  left  his  family  well  off,  connecte(r  with  high 
Potentates  all  around ;  and  had  increased  his  store,  to  a  fair 
degree,  in  his  time.  Besides  his  eldest  Son  who  followed  as 
Elector,  by  name  Joachim  I.,  a  burly  gentleman  of  whom 
much  is  written  in  Books,  he  left  a  second  Son,  Archbishop 
of  Magdeburg,  who  in  time  became  ^Vrchbishop  of  Mainz  and 
Cardinal  of  Holy  Church,' — and  by  accident  got  to  Ije  for- 
ever memorable  in  Church-History,  as  we  shall  see  anon. 
Archbishop  of  Mainz  means  withal  Kur-Mainz,  Elector  of 
Mainz ;  who  is  Chief  of  the  Seven  Electors,  and  as  it  were 
their  I'resident  or  "  Speaker."  Allx^rt  was  the  name  of  this 
one ;  his  elder  Brother,  the  then  Kur-Brandenburg,  was  called 
Joiichim.  Cardinal  Albert  Kur-Mainz,  like  his  brother  Joa- 
chim Kur-Brandenburg,  figures  much,  and  blazes  widely 
abroad,  in  the  busy  reign  of  Karl  V.,  and  the  inextricable 
Lutherau-Papal,  Turk-Christian  business  it  had. 

1  I'lrirli  von  lluttcn's  grand  "Paneg}-ric"  upon  this  Alhert  on  his  first 
Kntraiice  into  Mainz  (9th  October,  1514),  —  "entrance  with  a  retinue  of 
2,000  horse,  raainly  furnished  by  the  Brandenburg  and  Culnibach  kindred." 
say  the  old  Books,  —  is  in  Ulrirki  ai  Hutten  Equitis  Gtrmaui  Opera  (Munch'tf 
edition  ;  Berlin,  1821 ),  i.  276-310. 


r.iA.-.  IV.  KURFURST  ALBERT   ACHILLES.  183 

But  the  not;ible  point  in  this  Albert  of  Mainz  was  that  of 
Leo  X.  and  the  Indulgences.^  Pope  Leo  had  perniittcd  Albeit 
to  retain  his  Archbishopric  of  I\[agdeburg  and  other  dignities 
along  with  that  of  Mainz  ;  which  was  an  unusual  favor.  But 
the  Pojje  expected  to  be  paid  for  it,  —  to  have  oO.OOO  ducats 
(.•K15,(>(H>).  almost  a  King's  ransom  at  that  time,  for  the  "  Pal- 
lium "  to  Mainz ;  Fuiliu/ii,  or  little  Lit  of  woollen  Cloth,  on  sale 
by  the  Pope,  without  which  Mainz  could  not  he  held.  Albert, 
witli^all  his  dignities,  was  dreadfully  short  of  money  at  the  time. 
Chapter  of  Mainz  c«juld  or  would  do  little  or  nothing,  having 
been  drained  lately;  Alagdeburg,  llalberstadt,  the  like.  Albert 
tried  various  shilts;  tried  a  little  stroke  of  trade  in  relics, — 
gathered  in  the  Mainz  district  "  some  hundreds  of  fractional 
sacred  bones,  and  three  whole  bodies,"  which  he  sent  to  Halle 
for  pious  i»urchiLse  ;  —  but  nothing  c;uue  of  this  branch.  The 
£ir>,l)i){)  remained  unjjaid  ;  and  Pojkj  Leo,  building  St.  Peter's, 
'•furnishing  a  sister's  toilet,"  and  dt)ing  worse  things,  was  in 
extreme  need  of  it.  What  is  to  be  done  ;'  **  I  could  borrow 
the  money  from  the  Fuggers  of  Augsburg,"  said  the  Arch- 
bishop hesitatingly  ;  **  but  then  —  ?  "  —  '*  I  could  help  you 
to  repay  it  I  "'  said  his  Holiness:  "Could  repay  the  half  of 
it,  —  if  only  we  had  0''it  they  always  make  such  clamor  about 
these  things)  an  Indulgence  published  in  Germany !  "  — 
"Well;  it  must  be!"  answered  All)ert  at  last,  agreeing  to 
tiike  the  clamor  on  himself,  and  to  do  the  feat;  being  at  his 
wits'-end  for  money.  He  draws  out  his  Full-Power,  which,  as 
first  Spiritual  Kurfiirst,  he  has  the  privilege  to  do  ;  nominates 
(1516)  one  Tetzel  for  Chief  Salesman,  a  Priest  whose  hardness 
of  face,  and  shiftiness  of  head  and  hand,  were  known  to  him ; 
and  —  here  is  one  Hohenzollern  that  has  a  place  in  History! 
Poor  man,  it  was  by  accident,  and  from  extreme  tightness  for 
money.  He  was  by  no  means  a  violent  Churchman  ;  he  had 
himself  inclinations  towards  Luther,  even  of  a  practical  sort, 
as  the  thing  went  on.     But  there  was  no  help  for  it. 

Cardinal  Albert.  Kur-Mainz,  shows  himself  a  copious  dex- 
terous public  speaker  at  the  Diets  and  elsewhere  in  those 
times ;  a  man  intent  on  avoiding  violent  methods ;  —  uncom 
»  Pauli,  V.  496-499  ;  Rentsch,  p.  869. 


1«4    THE  HOIIENZOLLERXS  IX  BRANDENBURG.    B<k.k  HI. 

Iblii-l'obi. 

fortably  fat  in  his  later  years,  to  judge  by  the  Portraits.  Kur- 
Brandeuburg,  Kur-^Iainz  (the  younger  now  officially  even 
greater  than  the  elder),  these  names  are  perpetually  turning 
up  in  the  German  Histories  of  that  Reformation-Period ; 
absent  on  no  great  occasion  ;  and  they  at  length,  from  amid 
thf  meaningless  bead-roll  of  Names,  wearisomely  met  with  in 
su    I  Books,  emerge  into  Persons  for  us  as  above. 


CHAPTER   V. 

OF    TMK    BAIRKUTH-AXSl'ACIl    nUAXCII. 

Ar,nKHT  Arm  I.I, Ks  tlic  Third  Elector  had,  before  liis  acces- 
sion, been  Mavgraf  of  Anspach,  and  since  his  Brother  the 
Alchemist's  death,  Margraf  of  P.aircuth  too,  or  of  the  wholo 
Principality,  —  "Margraf  of  Cuhubach  "  we  will  call  it,  for 
brevity's  sake,  though  the  bewildering  old  Books  have  nci<; 
steadily  any  name  for  it.*  After  his  accession,  Allx^rt  Achil- 
les naturally  hekl  both  Electorate  and  Principality  duriirz 
the  rest  of  his  life.  Which  was  an  extremely  rare  predica* 
ment  for  the  two  Countries,  tlie  big  and  the  little. 

No  other  Elector  held  them  both,  for  nearly  a  hundred 
years ;  nor  then,  except  as  it  were  for  a  moment.  The  two 
countries.  Electorate  and  Principality,  Hohenzollern  both,  and 
constituting  what  the  HohenzoUerns  had  in  this  world,  con- 
tinued intimately  connected ;  with  affinity  and  clientship  care- 
fully kept  up,  and  the  lesser  standing  always  under  the  express 

1  A  certain  subaltorn  of  this  express  title,  "  Margraf  of  Calmbach "  (a 
Cadet,  with  some  temporary  apanage  tliere,  who  was  once  in  the  senice  of 
him  they  call  tlie  Winter-King,  and  may  again  be  transiently  heard  of  by  ua 
here),  is  the  altogether  Mysterious  IVrsonage  who  prints  himself  "  Marquit 
de  Lulenhach"  in  Bromlej-'s  Collection  of  Roifnl  Letlns  (London,  1787),  pp.  52, 
&c. :  —  one  of  the  most  curious  Books  on  the  Thirty- Years  War  ;  "  edited  " 
with  a  composed  stupidity,  and  cheerful  infinitude  of  ignorance,  which  still 
farther  distinguish  it.  The  Bromlry  Originals,  well  worth  a  real  editing, 
tnrn  ont,  on  inquiry,  to  have  been  "sold  as  Autographs,  and  dispersed  be- 
yond recoverv.  about  fifty  years  ago." 


Chap.  V.    OF   THE   BAIREUTH-ANSPACH  BRANCH.  185 

1516-1552. 

protection  and  as  it  were  cousinship  of  tlie  greater.  But  they 
had  their  separate  Princes,  Lines  of  Princes  ;  and  they  ouly 
twice,  in  the  time  of  these  Twelve  Electors,  came  even  tem- 
-porarily  under  the  same  head.  And  as  to  ultimate  union, 
Brandcnburg-Baireuth  and  Brandenburg-Anspach  were  not 
incorporated  with  Brandenburg-Proper,  and  its  new  fortunes, 
till  almost  our  own  day,  namely  in  1791 ;  nor  then  either  to 
continue;  having  fallen  to  Bavaria,  in  the  grand  Congress  of 
Vicjnna,  within  the  next  five-and-twenty  years.  All  which, 
with  the  complexities  and  perplexities  resulting  from  it  here, 
we  must,  in  some  brief  way,  endeavor  to  elucidate  for  the 
reader. 

Tico  Lines  in  Culmhach  or  Biiireuth-An»pa<-h  :    The  Gera 
Bond  of  lo98. 

Culmbach  the  Elector  left,  at  his  death,  to  his  Second  Son, 
—  properly  to  two  sons,  but  one  of  them  soon  died^  and  the 
other  became  sole  possessor  ;  —  Friedrich  by  name  ;  who,  as 
founder  of  the  Elder  Line  of  Brandenburg-Culmbach  Princes, 
must  not  be  forgotten  by  us.  Founder  of  the  First  or  Elder 
Line,  for  there  are  two  Lines ;  this  of  Friedrich's  having  gone 
out  in  about  a  hundred  years ;  and  the  Anspach-Baireuth  ter- 
ritories having  fallen  home  again  to  Brandenburg; — where, 
however,  they  continued  only  during  the  then  Kurfiirst's  life. 
Johann  George  (1525-1598),  Seventh  Kurfurst,  was  he  to 
whom  Brandenburg-Cububach  fell  home,  — nay,  strictly  speak- 
ing, it  was  but  the  sure  prospect  of  it  that  fell  home,  the  thing 
itself  did  not  quite  fall  in  his  time,  though  the  disposal  of  it 
did,^  —  to  be  conjoined  again  with  Brandenburg-Proper.  Con- 
joined for  the  short  potential  remainder  of  his  own  life ;  and 
then  to  be  disposed  of  as  all  apanage  again ;  —  which  latter 
operation,  as  Johann  George  had  three-and-twenty  children, 
could  be  no  difficult  one. 

Johann  George,  accordingly  (Year  1598),  split  the  Terri- 
tory in  two ;  Brandenburg-Baireuth  was  for  his  second  son, 
Brandenburg-Anspach  for  his  third :  hereby  again  were  two 
new  progenitors  of  Culmbach  Princes  introduced,  and  a  New 
1  "Disposal,"  1598 ;  thing  itself,  1603,  in  his  Son's  time. 


ISG    THE  nOHEXZOLLERNS  IN  BRANDENBURG.   Book  III. 

151G-J552. 

Line,  Second  or  •'  Younger  Line  "  they  call  it  (Line  mostly 
split  in  two,  as  heretofore);  wliich  —  after  complex  adven- 
tures in  its  split  condition,  Baireuth  under  one  head,  Anspach 
under  another — continues  active  down  to  our  little  Fritz's 
time  and  farther.  As  will  become  but  too  apparent  to  us  in 
the  course  of  tliis  History  !  — 

From  of  old  these  Territories  had  been  frequently  divided  : 
each  lias  its  own  little  capital,  Town  of  Anspach,  Town  of 
Buireuth,'  suitable  for  such  arrangement.  Frequently  di- 
vided ;  though  always  under  the  closest  cousinship,  and  ready 
for  reuniting,  if  possible.  Generally  under  the  EldiT  Line 
too,  under  Friedrich's  posterity,  wliich  was  rather  numerous 
and  often  in  need  of  apanages,  they  harl  been  in  separate 
hands.  But  the  understood  practice  was  not  to  chvide  farther; 
Baireuth  by  itseU',  Anspach  by  itself  (or  still  luckit-r  if  one 
hand  could  get  hold  of  both), — and  especially  Brandenburg 
by  itself,  uncut  by  any  apanage :  this,  I  observe,  was  the  re- 
ceived practice.  But  Johann  George,  wise  Kurfurst  as  he  was, 
wished  now  to  make  it  surer ;  and  did  so  by  a  famed  Deed, 
called  the  Gera  Bond  (Urraisrhe  Vertrag),  dated  1508,'^  the 
last  year  of  Johann  George's  life. 

Hereby,  in  a  Family  Conclave  licld  at  that  Gera,  a  little 
town  in  Thiiringen,  it  was  settled  and  indissolubly  fixed,  That 
their  Electorate,  unlike  all  others  in  Germany,  shall  continue 
indivisible ;  Law  of  Primogeniture,  here  if  nowhere  else,  is  to 
be  in  full  force  ;  and  only  the  Culmbach  Territory  (if  other- 
wise unoccupied)  can  be  split  off  for  younger  sons.  Culmbach 
can  be  split  off ;  and  this  again  withal  can  be  split,  if  need 
be,  into  two  (Baireuth  and  Anspach) ;  but  not  in  any  case 
farther.  "Which  Household-Law  was  strictly  obeyed  hence- 
forth. Date  of  it  1598 ;  principal  author,  Johann  George, 
Seventh  Elector.  This  "  Gera  Bond "  the  reader  can  note 
for  himself  as  an  excellent  piece  of  HohenzoUern  tlirift,  and 
important  in  the  Brandenburg  .annals.  On  the  whole,  Bran- 
denburg keeps  continually  growing  under  these  Twelve 
Hohenzollerns,   we  perceive ;   slower   or  faster,   just  as  the 

1  Populations  abont  the  same  ;   16,000  to  17,000  iu  our  time. 
»  Michaelis,  i.  345. 


Chap  V     OF    THE    HAlKErTII-AXSl'ACH    HKANCH.  187 

151G-1552. 

Uurggvafdoiu  had  done,  aud  by  similar  methods.  A  lucky 
outlay  of  money  (as  in  the  case  of  Friedrieh  Ironteeth  in  the 
Neumark)  brings  them  one  Province,  lucky  inheritance  an- 
other :  good  management  is  always  there,  which  is  the  mother 
of  good  luck. 

And  so  there  goes  on  again,  from  Johann  George  down- 
wards, a  new  stream  of  Culmbaeh  Princes,  called  the  Younger 
or  New  Line, — properly  two  contemporary  Lines,  of  Bai- 
reuthers  and  Anspaehers ;  —  always  in  close  affinity  to  Bran- 
denburg, and  with  ultimate  reversion  to  Brandenburg,  should 
both  Lines  fail;  but  with  mutual  inheritance  if  only  one. 
They  had  intricate  fortunes,  service  in  foreign  armies,  much 
wandering  about,  sometimes  considerable  scarcity  of  cash : 
but,  for  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  to  come,  neither  Line  by 
any  means  failed,  —  rather  the  contrary,  in  fact. 

Of  this  latter  or  New  Culmbaeh  Line,  or  split  Line,  es])e- 
cially  of  the  Baireuth  part  of  it,  our  little  Wilhelmina,  little 
Fritz's  Sister,  who  became  Margravine  there,  has  given  all 
the  world  notice.  From  the  Anspach  part  of  it  (at  that 
time  in  sore  scarcity  of  cash)  came  Queen  Caroline,  famed 
in  our  George  the  Second's  time.^  From  it  too  came  an 
unmomentous  Margraf,  who  married  a  little  Sister  of  Wil- 
helmina's  and  Fritz's ;  of  whom  we  shall  hear.  There  is 
lastly  a  still  more  unmomentous  Margraf,  only  son  of  said 
Unmomentous  and  his  said  Spouse  ;  who  again  combined  the 
two  Territories,  Baireuth  having  failed  of  heirs  ;  and  who, 
himself  without  heirs,  and  with  a  frail  Lady  Craven  as  Mar- 
gravine, —  died  at  Hammersmith,  close  by  us,  in  1806 ;  and 
so  ended  the  troublesome  affair.  He  had  already,  in  1791, 
sold  off  to  Prussia  all  temporary  claims  of  his  ;  and  let  Prussia 
have  the  Heritage  at  once  without  waiting  further.  Prussia, 
as  we  noticed,  did  not  keep  it  long ;  and  it  is  now  part  of  the 
Bavarian  Dominion  ;  —  for  the  sake  of  editors  and  readers, 
long  may  it  so  continue ! 

Of  this  Younger  Line,  intrinsically  rather  insignificant  to 
mankind,  we  shall  have  enough  to  write  in  time  and  place  ; 
we  must  at  present  direct  our  attention  to  the  Elder  Line. 
*  See  a  Synoptic  Diagram  of  these  Genealogies,  infra,  p.  388a. 


1»8    THE   II01IENZULLEKX8   IN    BKANDENBURU.    H—k  III. 

151G-166Z 

The  Elder  Line  of  Culmhach  :  Friedrich  and  his  Three 
notable  Sons  there. 

Kurfiirst  Allx-rt  Aeliilles's  second  son,  Fritdrich  (14G0- 
].■).%),'  the  founder  of  the  Ekler  Cuhubach  Line,  ruled  his 
country  well  for  certain  years,  and  was  "a  man  famed  for 
strength  of  lx)dy  and  mind  ;  "  but  (daims  little  notice  from  us, 
except  for  the  sons  he  had.  A  quiet,  commendable,  honorable 
iiiiin, — with  a  certain  jtathetic  dii^nity,  visible  even  in  the 
eclipsed  state  ho  sank  into.  Poor  old  g»*ntlcman,  aft<'r  grand 
enough  feats  in  war  and  peace,  he  fell  melancholy,  fell  imbe- 
cile, blind,  so(m  after  middle  life;  and  continued  so  for  twenty 
years,  till  he  died.  During  which  dark  state,  say  the  old 
Books,  it  was  a  pleasure  to  see  with  what  attention  his  Sons 
treated  him,  and  how  reverently  the  eldest  always  led  him  out 
to  dinner.^  They  live  and  dine  at  that  high  C;vstle  of  I'lassen- 
burg,  where  old  Friedri(di  can  btdiold  the  Red  or  White  Mayn 
no  more.  Alas,  alas,  Plassenburg  is  now  a  Correction-House, 
wliere  male  and  female  scoundrels  do  boating  of  hcmj);  and 
pious  Friedrich,  like  eloquent  Johann,  has  become  a  forgotten 
object.  He  w;is  of  the  (Jerman  Keichs- Array,  who  marched  to 
t'.i!?  Netherlands  to  deliver  Max  from  durance  ;  Max,  the  King 
of  the  Komans,  whom,  for  all  his  luck,  the  mutinous  Flemings 
had  put  under  lo<'k-and-key  at  one  time.3  That  is  his  one  feat 
memorable  to  me  at  present. 

He  was  Johann  Cicero's  //'^//'-brother,  child  by  a  second 
Avife.  Like  his  Uncle  Kurfiirst  Friedrich  II.,  he  had  married 
a  Polish  Princess ;  the  sharp  Achilles  having  perhaps  an  eye 
to  crowns  in  that  direction,  during  that  Hungarian-Bohemian- 
I'olish  Donny brook.  But  if  so,  there  again  came  nothing  of  a 
crown  with  it ;  though  it  was  not  without  its  good  results  for 
Friedrich's  children  by  and  by. 

He  had  eight  Sons  that  reached  manhood  ;  five  or  six  of 
whom  came  to  something  considerable  in  the  world,  and  Three 

1  Rentsch,  pp.  59.-3-602.  -  lb.  p.  612. 

3  1482  (Panli.  ii.  3S9) :  his  beautiful  youug  Wife,  "  thrown  from  her  horse," 
hail  perished  in  a  thrice-tragie  way,  .«hort  while  before ;  and  the  Seventeen 
Provinces  were  unruly  under  the  guardianship  of  Max. 


<  "Ar.  V.  OF   TIIK    IJAIKEUTU  ANSrACii   liKANCll.  189 

uve  memorable  down  to  this  day.  One  of  his  daughters  he 
married  to  the  Duke  of  Liegnitz  in  .Silesia;  which  is  among 
the  first  links  I  notice  of  a  connection  that  grew  strong  with 
tliat  sovereign  Duchy,  and  is  worth  remarking  by  my  readers 
liere.  Of  the  Three  notable  Sons  it  is  necessary  that  we  say 
something.  Casimir,  George,  Albert  are  the  names  of  these 
Three. 

Casimir,  the  eldest,*  whose  share  of  heritage  is  Baircuth, 
was  originally  intended  for  the  Churcli ;  but  inclining  rather 
to  secular  and  military  things,  or  his  prosj)ects  of  promotion 
altering,  he  early  (putted  that ;  and  took  vigorously  to  the 
career  of  arms  and  business.  A  truculent-looking  llerr,  with 
thoughtful  eyes,  and  hanging  under-lip  :  —  /uit  of  enviable 
softness ;  loose  disk  of  felt  flung  carelessly  on,  almost  like  a 
nightcap  artilicially  extended,  so  admirably  soft;  —  and  the 
look  of  the  man  Casimir,  between  his  cataract  of  black  beard 
and  this  semi-nightcai>,  is  carelessly  truculent,  lie  had  much 
lighting  with  the  Xiirnbergers  and  others  ;  laid  it  right 
terribly  on,  in  the  way  of  strokes,  when  needful.  He  was 
esjtecially  truculent  upoti  the  Revolt  of  Peasants  in  their 
liduernkrieg  (lolT*).  Them  in  their  wildest  rage  he  fronted ; 
lie,  that  others  might  rally  to  him  :  "  Unhappy  mortals,  will 
you  shake  the  world  to  jneces,  then,  because  you  have  much  to 
complain  of  ?  "  and  hanged  the  ringleaders  of  them  literally 
by  the  dozen,  when  quelled  and  captured.  A  severe,  rather 
truculent  Herr.  His  brother  George,  who  had  Anspach  for 
heritage,  and  a  right  to  half  those  prisoners,  admonished  and 
forgave  his  half;  and  pleaded  hard  with  Casimir  for  mercy  to 
the  others,  in  a  fine  Letter  still  extant ;  -  which  produced  no 
elfect  on  Casimir.  For  the  dog's  sake,  and  for  all  sakes,  "  let 
not  the  dog  learn  to  eat  leather  "  (of  which  his  indispensable 
leashes  and  muzzles  are  made)  I  That  was  a  proverb  often 
heard  on  the  occasion,  in  Luther's  mouth  among  the  rest. 

Casimir  died  in  1527,  age  then  towards  fifty.  For  the  last 
dozen  years  or  so.  when  the  Father's  malady  became  hopeless, 
he  had  governed  Culuibach,  both  parts  of  it  ;  the  Anspach 
1  1481-1527.  2  Iq  Eentsch,  p.  627. 


li>0    THE   lIOlIENZULLEliNS   IN   BKAXDENBURG.    Cook  m. 

1524. 

part,  which  belougetl  to  iiis  next  brother  George,  going  natu- 
rally, in  almost  all  things,  along  with  Baiveuth  j  and  George, 
who  was  couunonly  absent,  not  interfering,  except  on  impor- 
tant occasions.  Casimir  left  one  little  Boy,  age  then  only  six, 
name  Albert ;  to  whom  George,  henceforth  practical  sovereign 
of  Culmbach,  as  las  Brother  luul  been,  was  a])pointed  Guardian. 
This  youth,  very  full  of  lire,  wildlire  too  mucli  of  it,  exploded 
dreadfully  on  Germany  by  and  by  (Albert  AlciUades  the  name 
they  gave  him) ;  n;i,y,  towards  the  end  of  liis  nonage,  he  had 
been  rather  si^uttery  upon  lus  Uncle,  the  excellent  Guai'dian 
who  had  cluu'ge  of  him. 

FrledricK »  Second  Son,  Margraf  George  of  Anspach. 

Uncle  George  of  Anspach,  Casimir's  next  Brother,  had 
always  been  of  a  peaceabler  disposition  tliau  Casimir ;  not 
indeed  without  heat  of  temper,  and  sutlicieut  vivacity  of  every 
kind.  As  a  youth,  he  had  aided  Kaiser  Max  in  two  of  his 
petty  wars ;  but  was  always  rather  given  "  to  reading  Latin," 
to  Leai'ning,  and  ingenious  i)ursiiits.  His  I'olish  iluther,  who, 
we  perceive,  had  given  "Casimir"  his  name,  proved  much 
more  importint  to  George.  At  an  early  age  he  went  to  his 
Uncle  Vlatlislaus,  King  of  Hungary  and  Bohemia  :  for  — 
Alas,  after  all,  we  shall  have  to  cast  a  glance  into  that  un- 
beautiful  Hungarian-Bohemian  scramble,  comparable  to  an 
*•  Irisli  Donnybrook,"  where  Albert  Achilles  long  walked  as 
Chief-Constable.  It  behooves  us,  after  all,  to  point  out  some 
of  the  tallest  Iieads  in  it;  and  whitherwartl,  bludgeon  in  hand, 
they  seem  to  be  swaying  and  struggling.  —  Courage,  patient 
reader  ! 

George,  tlien,  at  an  early  age  went  to  his  Uncle  Yladislaus, 
King  of  Hungary  and  Bohemia :  for  George's  Stother,  as  we 
know,  was  of  royal  kin  ;  daughter  of  the  Polish  King,  Casi- 
mir IV.  (late  mauler  of  the  Teutseh  Bitters) ;  which  cucum- 
stance  had  results  for  Gr€orge  and  us.  Daughter  of  Casimir 
IV.  the  Lady  was  ;  and  therefore  of  the  Jagellon  blood  by  her 
father,  which  amounts  to  little ;  but  by  her  mother  slie  was 
Grand-daughter  of  that  Kaiser  Albert  II.  wlio  "got  Three 
Crowns  in  one  year,  and  died  the  next } "  whose  jKJsterity  have 


Chap.  V.     OF   THE    BAIREUTH-ANSPACH    BRANCH.  191 

151G-1552. 

ever  since,  —  up  to  the  lips  in  trouble  with  their  confused 
competitive  accompaniiuents,  Hunuiades,  Corvinus,  George 
Todiebrad  and  others,  not  to  speak  of  dragon  Turks  coiling 
ever  closer  round  you  on  the  frontier,  —  been  Kings  of  Hun- 
gary and  Bohemia  ;  two  of  the  crowns  (the  heritable  two)  which 
were  got  by  Kaiser  Albert  in  that  memorable  year.  He  got' 
them,  as  the  reader  may  reniember,  by  having  the  daughter  of 
Kaiser  Sigismund  to  wife, — Sigismund  Siqjer-GrunDiiatkain, 
whom  we  left  standing,  red  as  a  flamingo,  in  the  market-place 
of  Constance  a  hundred  years  ago.  Thus  Time  rolls  on  in  its 
many-colored  manner,  edacious  and  feracious. 

It  is  in  this  way  that  George's  Uncle,  Vladislaus,  Albert's 
daughter's  son,  is  now  King  of  Hungary  and  Bohemia :  the 
last  King  Vladislaus  they  had;  and  the  last  King  but  one, 
of  any  kind,  as  we  shall  see  anon.  Vladislaus  was  heir  of 
I'oland  too,  could  he  have  managed  to  get  it ;  but  he  gave  up 
that  to  his  brother,  to  various  younger  brothers  in  succession  ; 
having  his  hands  full  with  the  Hungarian  and  Bohemian 
diificulty.  He  was  very  fond  of  Xephew  George ;  well  recog- 
nizing the  ingenuous,  wdse  and  loyal  nature  of  the  young 
man.  He  appointed  George  tutor  of  his  poor  son  Ludwig ; 
whom  ne  left  at  the  early  age  of  ten,  in  an  evil  world,  and 
evil  position  there.  "Born  without  Skin,"  they  say,  that  is, 
born  in  the  seventh  month ;  —  called  LudAvig  Ohne  Haut 
(Ludwig  TVo-Skin),  on  that  account.  Born  certainly,  I  can 
perceive,  rather  thin  of  skin ;  and  he  would  have  needed  one 
of  a  rhinoceros  thickness  ! 

George  did  his  function  honestly,  and  with  success  :  Ludwig 
grew  up  a  gallant,  airy,  brisk  young  King,  in  spite  of  difficul- 
ties, constitutional  and  other ;  got  a  Sister  of  the  great  Kaiser 
Karl  V.  to  wife  ;  —  determined  (a.d.  1526)  to  have  a  stroke  at 
the  Turk  dragon  ;  which  was  coiling  round  his  frontier,  and 
spitting  fire  at  an  intolerable  rate.  Ludwig,  a  fine  young 
man  of  twenty,  marched  aw^ay  with  much  Hungarian  chivalry, 
right  for  the  Turk  (Summer  1526) ;  George  meanwhile  going 
busily  to  Bohemia,  and  there  with  all  his  strength  levying 
troops  for  reinforcement.  Lud"\vig  fought  and  fenced,  for 
some  time,  with  the  Turk  outskirts ;  came  at  last  to  a  fiuious 


192    THE  llUliENZULLEKNS   LN    IJUANDENlJUliL;.    H'-'K  III. 

general  battle  with  the  Turk  (29th  Au^^st,  1526),  at  a  place 
called  Mohacz,  far  east  in  the  flats  of  the  Lower  Donau  ;  and 
was  there  tragically  beaten  and  ended.  Seeing  the  I^attle 
gone,  and  his  chivalry  all  in  flight,  Ludwig  too  had  to  fly  ; 
galloping  for  lite,  he  ciuue  upon  bog  which  proved  bottom- 
less, as  good  as  bottomless;  auil  Ludwig,  horse  and  uuin, 
vanished  in  it  straightway  from  this  world.  Hapless  young 
man,  like  a  flash  of  lightning  suddenly  going  down  there  — 
and  the  Hungarian  Sovereignty  along  with  him.  For  Hun- 
gary is  part  of  Austria  ever  since;  having,  with  Bohemia, 
fallen  to  Kaid  V.'s  Brother  Ferdinand,  as  now  the  nearest  con- 
voniont  heir  of  AllnM-t  with  his  Three  Crowns.  Up  to  tlie  lips 
in  ilithculties  to  this  day  I  — 

George  meanwhile,  with  finely  appointed  reinforcements, 
was  in  fidl  march  to  join  Ludwig ;  but  the  sad  news  of 
Mohacz  met  him :  he  withdrew,  as  soon  as  might  be,  to  his 
own  territory,  and  quitted  Hungarian  politics.  This,  I  think, 
Avas  George's  third  and  last  trial  of  war.  He  by  no  means 
delighted  in  that  art,  or  had  cultivated  it  like  Casimir  and 
some  of  his  brothers.  — 

George  by  this  time  had  considerable  property ;  part  of  it 
important  to  the  readers  of  this  History.  Ansi)ach  we  already 
know  ;  but  the  Duchy  of  Jiigerndorf,  —  that  and  its  pleasant 
valleys,  fine  hunting-grounds  and  larch-clad  heights,  among 
the  Giant  Mountains  of  Silesia,  —  that  is  to  us  the  memora- 
ble territory.     George  got  it  in  this  manner :  — 

Some  ten  or  fifteen  years  ago,  the  late  King  Vladislaus,  our 
Uncle  of  blessed  memory,  loving  George,  and  not  having 
royal  moneys  at  command,  permitted  him  to  redeem  with  his 
own  cash  certain  Hungai-ian  Domains,  pledged  at  a  ruinously 
cheap  rate,  but  unredeemable  by  ^^adislaus.  George  did  so  ; 
years  ago,  guess  ten  or  fifteen.  George  did  not  like  the  Hun- 
garian Domains,  with  their  Turk  and  other  inconveniences ; 
he  proposed  to  exchange  them  with  King  Vladislaus  for  the 
Bohemian-Silesian  Duchy  of  Jagerndorf  ;  which  had  just  then, 
by  failure  of  heirs,  lapsed  to  the  King.  This  also  \1adislaus, 
the  beneficent  cashless  Uncle,  liking  George  more  and  more, 


<'»Ai-.  V.    OF   THE    BAlliEL'Tll-ANSPACH    BKANClI.  19o 

J51G-15ii2. 

permitted  to  be  done.  And  done  it  was ;  I  see  not  in  wluit 
year ;  only  that  the  ultimate  investiture  (done,  this  part  of 
the  affair,  by  Ludwig  OJinc  Jlauf,  and  duly  sanctioned  by  tlie 
Jvaiser)  dates  lo24,  two  years  before  the  fatal  Mohacz  busi- 
ness. 

From  the  time  of  this  i)urehase,  and  especially  till  Brotlier 
Casiniir's  death,  wliich  happened  in  1527,  George  resided 
oftener  at  Jjigerudorf  than  at  Anspach.  Anspach,  by  the  side 
of  Baireuth,  needed  no  n)anagemcnt ;  and  in  Jiigerndorf  much 
l)robably  required  the  hand  of  a  g<x)d  Governor  to  put  it 
straight  again.  The  Castle  of  Jiigerndorf,  w^hich  towers  up 
there  in  a  rather  grand  manner  to  tliis  day,  George  built : 
*'  the  okl  Castle  of  the  8chellenbergs  "  (e.xtinct  predecessor 
] Jiic)  now  gone  to  ruins,  "  stands  on  a  Hill  with  larches  on 
it,  some  mik^s  off."  Margi-af  George  was  much  esteemed  as 
Duke  of  Jiigerndorf.  "What  his  actions  in  tliat  region  were, 
I  know  not ;  but  it  seems  he  was  so  well  thouglit  of  in  Sile- 
sia, two  smaller  neighboring  Potentates,  the  Duke  of  0})peln 
and  the  Duke  of  l\atilx>r,  who  had  no  heirs  of  their  Ix^dy, 
bequeathed,  with  the  Kaiser's  assent,  these  towns  and  territo- 
ries to  George  :  *  —  in  mere  love  to  their  subjects  (Kentsch 
intimates),  that  poor  men  might  be  governed  by  a  wise  good 
])uke,  in  the  time  coming.  The  Kaiser  would  have  got  the 
Duchies  otherwise. 

Nay  the  Kaiser,  in  spite  of  his  preliminary  assent,  proved 
extortionate  to  George  in  this  matter ;  and  exacted  heavy  sums 
for  the  actual  possession  of  Oppeln  and  Rat'bor.  George, 
going  so  zealously  ahead  in  Protestant  affairs,  grew  less  and 
less  a  favorite  with  Kaisers.  But  so,  at  any  rate,  on  peace- 
able unquestionable  grounds,  grounds  valid  as  Imperial  Law 
and  ready  money,  George  is  at  last  Lord  of  these  two  little 
Countries,  in  the  plain  of  South-Silesia,  as  of  Jiigerndorf  among 
the  Mountains  hard  by.  George  has  and  holds  the  Duchy  of 
Jiigerndorf,  with  these  appendages  (Jagerndorf  since  1524, 
Patibor  and  Oppeln  since  some  years  later)  j   and  lives  con- 

1  Rentsch,  pp.  623,  127-131.     Kaiser  is  Ferdinand,  Karl  V.'s  Brother,  — as 
yet  only  Kiny  of   Bohemia  and   Hungary,  but  supreme  in   regard  to  such 
points.     His  assent  is  dated  "  17th  June,  1531  "  in  Rentsch. 
VOL.   V.  13 


104    THE  IIOIIENZOLLERNS  IN   BRANDENBURG,   li"'"-  HI. 

1510-1002. 

Btantly,  or  at  the  due  intervals,  in  las  own  strong  Mountain- 
Castle  of  Jiigerndorf  there,  —  we  have  no  doubt,  to  the 
marked  bcnetit  of  good  men  in  those  parts.  Hereby  has 
Jiigerndorf  joined  itself  to  the  Brandenburg  Territories :  and 
the  reader  can  note  the  circumstance,  for  it  will  pruve  memo- 
rable one  diiy. 

In  the  business  of  the  Kefonnation,  ]Margraf  George  was 
very  noble.  A  simple-hearted,  truth-loving,  modestly  valiant 
man  ;  rising  unconsciously,  in  that  great  element,  into  the 
heroic  figure.  " George  the  Tious  (der  Fromme),^^  " George  the 
Confessor  (Bekenner),''  were  the  names  he  got  from  his  country- 
men. Once  this  business  hiul  become  practical,  George  inter- 
fered a  little  more  in  the  Culmbach  Government ;  his  brother 
Casimir,  who  likewise  hatl  lieformation  tendencies,  rather 
hanging  back  in  comparison  to  George. 

In  ir)25  the  Town-pojiulations,  in  the  Cuhnbar-h  region,  big 
Kia-nberg  in  the  van,  luul  gone  (luite  ahead  in  the  new  Doc- 
trine ;  and  were  becomi4ig  irrepressibly  impatient  to  clear  out 
the  old  mendacities,  and  have  the  Gospel  preached  freely  to 
them.  This  was  a  questionable  st<'p;  feasible  perhai)S  for  a 
great  Elector  of  Saxony ;  —  but  for  a  Margraf  of  Anspacli  ? 
George  had  come  home  from  Jiigerndorf,  some  three  hundred 
miles  away,  to  look  into  it  for  himself ;  found  it,  Avhat  with 
darkness  all  round,  what  with  precipices  menacing  on  both 
hands,  and  zealous,  inconsiderate  Town-populations  threaten- 
ing to  take  the  bit  between  their  teeth,  a  frightfully  intri- 
cate thing.  George  mounted  his  horse,  one  day  this  year,  day 
not  dated  farther,  and  "  with  only  six  attendants  "  privately 
rode  off,  another  two  hundred  miles,  a  good  three  days'  ride,  to 
Wittenberg;  and  alighted  at  Di-.  Martinus  Lutherus's  door.* 
A  notable  passage  ;  worth  thinking  of.  But  such  visits  of  high 
Briuces,  to  that  poor  house  of  the  Doctor's,  were  not  then 
uncommon.  Luther  cleared  the  doubts  of  George  ;  George  re- 
turned with  a  resolution  taken  ;  "  Ahead  then,  ye  poor  Voigt- 
land  Gospel  populations  !  I  must  lead  you,  we  must  on  !  "  — 
And  perils  enough  there  proved  to  be,  and  precipices  on  each 

1  Rentsch,  p.  G25. 


t'HAi-.  V.  (jF   THE    BAIKEUTII-ANSPACH    HRANClI.     195 

loili  June,  1530. 

liaud  :  iJaucDikrutj,  that  is  to  say  Peasants  "-War,  Auabaptistry 
and  Red-Eepublic,  on  the  one  hand ;  Beichs-Acht,  Ban  of  Em- 
pire, on  the  other.  But  George,  eagerly,  solemnly  attentive, 
-vvith  ever  new  light  rising  on  him,  dealt  with  the  perils  as  they 
came  ;  and  went  steadily  on,  in  a  simple,  highly  manful  and 
courageous  manner. 

He  did  not  live  to  see  the  actual  Wars  that  followed  on 
Luther's  preaching:  —  he  was  of  the  same  age  with  Luther, 
born  few  months  later,  and  died  two  years  before  Luther  ; '  — 
but  in  all  tlie  inturmetliute  principal  transactions  George  is 
conspicuously  present ;  "  George  of  Brandenburg,"  as  the  Books 
call  him,  or  simply  "  Margraf  George." 

At  the  Diet  of  Augsburg  (looO),  and  the  signing  of  tlie 
Augsburg  Confession  there,  he  was  sure  to  be.  He  rode  thither 
with  liis  Anspach  Knightage  about  him,  ^'  four  hundred  cava- 
liers," —  Seckendorfs,  lluttens,  Flanses  and  other  known  kin- 
dreds, recognizable  among  the  lists;-  —  and  spoke  there,  not 
bursts  of  parliamentary  elo(iuence,  but  things  that  had  mean- 
ing in  them.  One  S2»eech  of  his,  not  in  the  Diet,  but  in  the 
Kaiser's  Lodging  (loth  June,  lo30;  no  doubt,  in  Anton  Fug- 
ger's  house,  where  the  Kaiser  "  lodged  for  year  and  day  "  this 
time  but  without  the  '•  Ures  of  cinnamon  "  they  talk  of  on  other 
occasions^),  is  still  very  celebrated.  It  was  the  evening  of 
the  Kaiser  Karl  Fifth's  arrival  at  the  Diet ;  which  was  then 
already,  some  time  since,  assembled  there.  And  great  had 
been  the  Kaiser's  reception  that  morning;  the  flower  of  Ger- 
many, all  the  Princes  of  the  Empire,  Protestant  and  Papal 
alike,  riding  out  to  meet  him,  in  the  open  country,  at  the 
Bridge  of  the  Lech.  With  high-flown  speeches  and  benignities, 
on  both  sides  ;  —  only  that  the  Kaiser  willed  all  men,  Protes- 
tant and  other,  should  in  the  mean  while  do  the  Popish  litany- 
ings,  waxlight  processionings  and  idolatrous  stage-performances 

1  4th  March,  14S4,  —  27th  Dec,  I  10th  November,  1483— 18th  February, 
1543,  George;  |  1546,  Luther. 

-  Rentsch,  p.  633. 

^  See  Carlyle's  Miscellanies  (iii.  259  n.).  The  House  is  at  present  an  Inn, 
"  GasihdHs  zu  den  drei  Mohren ; "  where  tourists  lodge,  and  are  still  shown  the 
room  which  the  Kaiser  occupied  on  such  visits. 


r.'O      IKJIIKNZOLLLUNS   IN    BUANDEN IJUKG.  ^i"^^  "l- 

15th  Juiiti,  lb.iO. 

with  hiiii  oil  tlio  morrow,  which  was  t'orjnis-Christi  Day  ;  and 
the  Protestants  coukl  not  nor  would.  Imperial  hints  there 
had  already  been,  from  lunspruck  ;  benign  hopes,  of  the  nature 
of  commands,  That  loyal  Protestant  Princes  would  in  the  in- 
terim avoid  open  discrepancies,  —  porhai)s  be  so  loyal  as  keep 
their  cliai^lains,  i)eculiar  divine-services,  private  in  the  interim  ? 
These  were  hints  ;  —  and  now  this  of  the  Coqnis-Chi'isti,  a  still 
more  pregnant  hint !  Loyal  Protestants  refused  it,  therefore ; 
flatly  declined,  though  bidden  and  again  bidden.  They  at- 
tended in  a  body,  old  Johann  of  Saxony,  young  Philip  of 
llessen,  and  the  rest;  Margraf  George,  as  spokesman,  with 
eloquent  simplicity  stating  their  reasons,  —  to  somewhat  this 
effect :  — 

Invinciblest  all-gracious  Kaiser,  loyal  are  we 'to  your  high 
Majesty,  ready  to  do  your  bidding  by  night  and  by  day.  Put 
it  is  your  bidding  under  God,  not  against  God.  Ask  us  not, 
O  gracious  Kaiser!  I  cannot,  and  we  cannot;  and  we  must 
not,  and  dare  not.  And  "  before  1  would  deny  my  God  and 
his  Evangel,"  these  are  George's  own  words,  "  1  would  rather 
kneel  down  here  before  your  ^lajesty,  and  have  my  head  struck 
off,"  —  hitting  his  hind-head,  or  neck,  with  the  edge  of  his 
hand,  by  way  of  accompaniment ;  a  strange  radiance  in  the 
eyes  of  him,  voice  risen  into  musical  alt :  '*  Ehe  Ich  u-olte 
tneinen  Gott  und  scin  Evangdiuin  verldugtien,  ehe  wolte  Ich  hier 
vor  Eurer  Majestat  niderknien,  und  viir  den  Kopf  abhauen 
lassen:'  —  '' Nit  Kop  ah,  lover  Forst,  nit  Kop  ah!''  answered 
Charles  in  his  Flemish-German;  "Not  head  off,  dear  Furst, 
not  head  off !  "  said  the  Kaiser,  a  faint  smile  enlightening 
those  weighty  gray  eyes  of  his,  and  imperceptibly  animating 
the  thick  Austrian  under-lip.* 

Speaker  and  company  attended  again  on  the  morrow ;  ^lar- 
graf  George  still  more  eloquent.  Whose  Speech  flew  over  Ger- 
many, like  fire  over  dry  flax  ;  and  still  exists,  —  both  Speeches 
now  oftenest  rolled  into  one  by  inaccurate  editors.^  And 
the  Corpus-Christl  idolatries  were  forborne  the  Margraf  and  his 

1  Rentsch,  p.  637.  Marlieineke,  GeschlcIUe  der  Teutschen  Rejormation  (Ber 
liu,  1831),  ii.  487. 

-  As  by  Kentsch,  ubi  suprk. 


CuAv.y.    OF   THE    BAIKEUTH-ANSPACII    IJKANCll.  197 

151G-1552. 

company  this  time ;  —  tlie  Kaiser  himself,  however,  walking, 
nearly  roasted  in  the  sun,  in  heavy  purple-velvet  cloak,  with  a 
big  wax-candle,  very  supertluous,  guttering  and  blubbering  in 
the  right  hand  of  him,  along  the  streets  of  Augsburg.  Kur- 
Rrandenburg,  Kur-Mainz,  high  cousins  of  George,  were  at  this 
Diet  of  Augsburg ;  Kur-Brandenburg  (Elector  Joachim  I., 
Cicero's  sou,  of  whom  we  have  spoken,  and  shall  speak  again) 
being  often  very  loud  on  the  conservative  side ;  and  eloquent 
Kur-Mainz  going  on  the  conciliatory  tack.  Kur-Brandenburg, 
in  his  zeal,  had  ridden  on  to  Innsi)vuck,  to  meet  the  Kaiser 
there,  and  have  a  preliminary  word  with  him.  Both  these 
high  Cousins  spoke,  and  bestirred  themselves,  a  good  deal,  at 
this  Diet.  They  had  met  the  Kaiser  on  the  plains  of  the  Lech, 
this  morning ;  and,  no  doubt,  gloomed  unutterable  things  on 
George  and  his  Speech.     George  could  not  help  it. 

Till  his  death  in  1543,  George  is  to  be  found  always  in  the 
front  line  of  this  high  Movement,  in  the  line  where  Kur-Sachsen, 
John  the  Steadfast  (der  Bestcindige),  and  y(  ung  I'hilip  the 
Magnanimous  of  Hessen  were,  and  where  danger  and  difficulty 
were.  Headers  of  this  enlightened  gold-nugget  generation  can 
form  to  themselves  no  conception  of  the  spirit  that  then  pos- 
sessed the  nobler  kingly  mind.  "The  command  of  God  en- 
dures through  Eternity,  Verbum  Dei  Manet  In  Mternum^''  was 
the  Epigraph  and  Life-motto  which  John  the  Steadfast  had 
adopted  for  himself ;  "  V.  D.  M.  I.  ^.,"  these  initials  he  had 
engraved  on  all  the  furnitures  of  his  existence,  on  his  stand- 
ards, pictures,  plate,  on  the  very  sleeves  of  his  lackeys, —  and  I 
can  perceive,  on  his  own  deep  heart  first  of  all.  V.  D.  M.  I.  E. : 
—  or  might  it  not  be  read  withal,  as  Philip  of  Hessen  some- 
times said  (Philip,  still  a  young  fellow,  capable  of  sport  in  his 
magnanimous  scorn),  "  Verbum  Dlaboli  Manet  In  Episcopis, 
The  Devil's  Word  sticks  fast  in  the  Bishops "  ? 

We  must  now  take  leave  of  Margraf  George  and  his  fine 
procedures  in  that  crisis  of  World-History.  He  had  got  Jii- 
gerndorf,  which  became  important  for  his  Family  and  others : 
but  what  was  that  to  the  Promethean  conquests  (such  we  may 
call  them)  which  he  had  the  honor  to  assist  in  making  for  his 


11)8    THE  IIOIIENZOLLEKNS  IN  BRANDEMUKG.     B<m.k  III. 

151G-1552. 

Family,  and  for  his  Couutry,  and  for  all  lufu ;  —  very  uncon- 
scious he  of  "bringing  fire  from  Heaven,"  good  modest  simple 
man  !  So  far  as  I  can  gather,  there  lived,  in  that  day,  few 
truer  specimens  of  the  Honest  Man.  A  rugged,  rough-hewn, 
rather  blunt-nosed  physiognomy  :  cheek-bones  high,  cheeks 
somewhat  bagged  and  wrinkly  ;  eyes  with  a  due  shade  of  anx- 
iety and  sadness  in  them  ;  atfectionate  simplicity,  faithfulness, 
intelligence,  veracity  looking  out  of  every  feature  of  him. 
Wears  jjlentiful  white  beard  short-cut,  jjlentiful  gold-chains, 
ruffs,  ermines  ;  —  a  hat  not  to  be  approved  of,  in  compari- 
son with  brother  Casirair's ;  miserable  inverted-colander  of 
a  hat;  hanging  at  an  angle  of  forty-iive  d(!grees  ;  with  band 
of  pearls  round  the  top  not  the  bottom  of  it ;  insecure  upon 
the  fine  head  of  George,  and  by  no  means  ^to  its  embellish- 
ment. 

One  of  his  Daughters  he  married  to  the  Duke  of  Liegnitz , 
a  new  link  in  that  connection.  He  left  one  Boy,  George 
Friedrich  ;  wliu  came  under  Aldhindrs,  his  Cousin  of  Baireuth's 
tutelage;  and  sutbred  niuiii  by  that  connection,  or  indeed 
chiefly  l»y  his  own  conspicuously  Protestant  turn,  to  jjunish 
whieli,  the  Alcibiailes  connection  was  taken  as  a  pretext.  In 
riper  yeai's,  George  Friedrich  got  his  calamities  brought  well 
under ;  and  livetl  to  do  good  work,  Protestant  and  other,  in  the 
worlil.  To  which  we  may  perhaps  allude  again.  The  Line  of 
Margraf  George  the  Pious  ends  in  this  George  Friedrich,  who 
had  no  children ;  the  Line  of  Margraf  George,  and  the  Elder 
Culmbach  Line  altogether  (1(»().")),  Albert  Alcibiades,  Casimir's 
one  son,  having  likewise  died  without  posterity. 

"Of  the  younger  Brothers,"  says  my  Authority,  "some  four 
were  in  the  Church ;  two  of  whom  rose  to  be  Prelates  ;  —  here 
are  the  four :  — 

"  1°.  One,  Wilhelm  by  name,  was  Bishop  of  Riga,  in  the 
remote  Prussian  outskirts,  and  became  Protestant ;  —  among 
the  first  great  Prelates  who  took  that  heretical  course ;  being 
favored  by  circumstances  to  cast  out  the  *  V.  D.  (  Verbum  Dia- 
holi),^  as  Philip  read  it.  He  is  a  wise-looking  man,  with  mag- 
nilicont  beard,  with  something  of  contemptuous  patience  in  the 
meditative  eyes  of  him.     He  had  great  troubles  with  his  Biga 


I 


(  HA1-.  \ .      OF   THE   BAIKEUTH-ANSPACH   BRANCH.        199 

1010-1502. 

people,  —  as  indeed  was  a  perennial  case  between  their  Bishop 
and  them,  of  whatever  creed  he  might  be.  ' 

"  2°.  The  other  Prelate  held  fast  by  the  Papal  Orthodoxy  :  he 
had  got  upon  the  ladder  of  promotion  towards  ^lagdebuvg ; 
hoping  to  follow  his  Cousin  Kur-Mainz,  the  eloquent  concilia- 
tory Cardinal,  in  that  part  of  his  pluralities.  As  he  did, — 
little  to  his  comfort,  poor  man ;  having  suffered  a  good  deal  in 
the  sieges  and  religious  troubles  of  his  Magdeburgers ;  who 
ended  ,by  ordering  him  away,  having  openly  declared  them- 
selves Protestant,  at  length.  He  hail  to  go;  and  occupy  liim- 
self  complaining,  soliciting  Aulii-Councils  and  the  like,  for  the 
rest  of  his  life. 

''3°.  The  Probst  of  Wiirzburg  (Provost,  kind  of  Head-Canon 
there) ;  orthodox  Pa})al  he  too ;  and  often  gave  his  Brother 
George  trouble. 

*'4°.  A  still  more  ortliodox  specimen,  the  youngest  member 
of  the  family,  who  is  likewise  in  orders  :  Gumbrecht  (•  Gumber- 
tus,  a  Canonicus  of '  Something  or  other,  say  the  Books) ;  who 
went  early  to  Bome,  and  became  one  of  his  Holiness  Leo 
Tentli's  Chamberlains  ;  —  stood  the  '  Sack  of  Eome '  (Consta- 
ble de  Bourbon's),  and  was  captured  there  and  ransomed ;  — 
but  died  still  young  (1528).  These  three  were  Catholics,  he  of 
Wiirzbnrg  a  rather  virulent  one." 

Catholic  also  was  Johannes,  a  fifth  Brother,  who  followed 
the  soldiering  and  diplomatic  professions,  oft.^nest  in  Spain ; 
did  Government-messages  to  Diets,  and  the  like,  for  Karl  V. ; 
a  high  man  and  well  seen  of  his  Kaiser  ;  —  he  had  wedded  the 
young  Widow  of  old  King  Ferdinand  in  Spain ;  which  proved, 
seemingly,  a  troublous  scene  for  poor  Johannes.  What  we 
know  is,  he  was  appointed  Commandant  of  Valencia ;  and  died 
there,  still  little  turned  of  thirty,  —  by  poison  it  is  supposed, 
—  and  left  his  young  Widow  to  marry  a  third  time. 

These  are  the  Five  minor  Brothers,  four  of  them  Catholic, 
sons  of  old  blind  Friedrich  of  Plassenburg ;  who  are  not,  for 
their  own  sake,  memorable,  but  are  mentionable  for  the  sake 
of  the  three  major  Brothers.  So  many  orthodox  Catholics, 
while  Brother  George  and  others  went  into  the  heresies  at 
such  a  rate  !     A  family  much  split  by  religion  :  —  and  blind 


200    THE    IIUHENZOLLEKNS  IN   BKANUEXBL'KG.  li-""<  HI- 

old  Friedrieh,  dim  of  intellect,  knew  notliing  of  it ;  and  the 
excellent  I'olisli  ^Mother  said  and  thought,  we  know  not  what. 
A  divided  Time  I  — 

•Joliannes  of  Valencia,  and  these  Chief  Priests,  were  all  men 
of  mark;  conspicuous  to  the  able  editors  of  their  day  :  but  the 
only  Brother  now  generally  known  to  mankind  is  Albert,  Hoch- 
uieister  of  the  Teutsch  Ritterdom ;  by  whom  Preussen  came 
into  the  Family.     Of  him  we  must  now  speak  a  little. 


CI  I A  ITER    VI. 

IIOCHMEISTKU    ALHKKT,  TUIKD  XoTAHLE    SON    OF    FUIEDRICn. 

Albkut  was  l>orn  in  149<1;  Georjje's  junior  by  six  yean 
Casimir's  by  nine.  He  too  had  been  meant  for  the  Churchy 
but  soon  quitted  tluit,  otlier  j)rospects  and  tendencies  open- 
ing. He  hiul  always  lovinl  the  ingenuous  arts  ;  but  the 
activities  too  liad  cliarms  for  him.  He  early  shone  in  his 
exercises  spiritual  and  bodily ;  grew  tall  above  his  fellows, 
export  in  arts,  especially  in  arms;  —  rode  with  his  Father  to 
Kaiser  Max's  Court ;  was  presented  by  him,  as  the  light  of 
his  eyes,  to  Kaiser  Max;  who  thought  him  a  very  likely 
young  fellow  ;  and  Iwre  him  in  mind,  when  the  Mastership  of 
the  Teutsch  Kittcrdom  fell  vacant.^ 

The  Teutsch  Ritterdom,  ever  since  it  got  its  back  broken 
in  that  Rattle  of  Tannenberg  in  1410,  and  was  driven  out 
of  West-Preussen  with  such  ignominious  kicks,  has  been 
lying  bedrid,  eating  its  remaining  revenues,  or  sprawling 
alx)ut  in  helpless  efforts  to  rise  again,  which  require  no 
notice  from  us.  Hopeless  of  ever  recovering  West-Preussen, 
it  had  quietly  paid  its  homage  to  Poland  for  the  Eastern 
part  of  that  Country ;  quietly  for  some  couple  of  generar 
tions.  But,  in  the  third  or  fourth  generation  after  Tannen- 
1  Kentsch.  pp.  840-863, 


^'"  VI    VI.  HUCIIMEISTER   ALBERT.  201 

1525. 

berg,  there  began  to  rise  murmurs, — iu  the  Holy  Roman 
lOmpire  first  of  all.  "  Preussen  is  a  piece  of  the  Reich,"  said 
hut,  inconsiderate  people ;  "  Preussen  could  not  be  alienated 
without  consent  of  the  Reich !  "  To  which  discourses  the 
afflicted  Ritters  listened  only  too  gladly ;  their  dull  eyes 
kindling  into  new  false  hopes  at  sound  of  them.  The  point 
was,  To  choose  as  llochmeister  some  man  of  German  in- 
ihience,  of  power  and  comiection  in  the  Country,  who  might 
help  thc'm  to  their  so-called  right.  With  this  view,  they  chose 
one  and  then  another  of  such  sort;  —  and  did  not  find  it  very 
hopeful,  as  we  shall  see. 

Albert  was  chosen  Grand-Blaster  of  Preussen,  in  February, 
1">11 ;  age  then  twenty-one.  Made  his  entr}-  into  Kcinigsberg, 
November  next  year  ;  in  grand  cavalcade,  "  dreadful  storm  of 
rain  and  wind  at  the  tinu',"  —  poor  Albert  all  in  black,  and 
full  of  sorrow,  for  the  loss  of  his  Mother,  the  good  I'olish  Prin- 
cess, who  had  died  since  he  left  home.  Twenty  months  of 
prepai*atiou  he  had  held  since  his  Election,  before  doing  any- 
thing :  for  indeed  the  case  was  intricate.  He,  like  his  prede- 
cessor iu  office,  had  undertaken  to  refuse  that  Homage  to 
Poland;  the  Reich  generally,  and  Kaiser  Max  himself,  in  a 
loose  way  of  talk,  encouraging  him  :  "  A  piece  of  the  Reich," 
said  they  all ;  *'  Teutsch  Ritters  had  no  power  to  give  it  away 
in  that  manner."  AVhich  is  a  thing  more  easily  said,  than 
made  good  in  the  wa}^  of  doing. 

Albert's  predecessor,  chosen  on  this  principle,  was  a  Saxon 
Prince,  Friedrich  of  Meissen ;  cadet  of  Saxony ;  potently 
enough  connected,  he  too  ;  who,  in  like  manner,  had  under- 
taken to  refuse  the  Homage.  And  zealously  did  refuse  it, 
though  to  his  cost,  poor  man.  From  the  Reich,  for  all  its  big 
talking,  he  got  no  manner  of  assistance  ;  had  to  stave  off 
a  Polish  War  as  he  could,  by  fair-speaking,  by  diplomacies 
and  contrivances  ;  and  died  at  middle  age,  worn  down  by  the 
sorrows  of  that  sad  position. 

An  idea  prevails,  in  ill-informed  circles,  that  our  new  Grand- 
]\Iaster  Albert  was  no  better  than  a  kind  of  cheat ;  that  he 
took  this  Grand-Mastership  of  Preussen ;  and  then,  in  gayety 
of  heart,  surreptitiously  pocketed   Preussen  for  his  own  be- 


202     THE  IIOIIEXZOLLEKXS  IN  BRANDENBURG.  B<h.k  ill. 

151G-15&2. 

hoof.  Which  is  an  idle  idea ;  inconsistent  with  the  least 
inquiry,  or  real  knowledge  how  the  matter  stooil.^  By  no 
means  in  gayety  of  heart  did  Albert  pocket  Preussen ;  nor  till 
alter  as  tough  a  struggle  to  do  other  with  it  as  could  have 
been  expected  of  any  man. 

One  thing  not  suspected  by  the  Teutsch  Ritters,  and 
least  of  all  by  their  young  Hochmeister,  was,  That  the 
Teutsch  Ritters  had  well  deserved  that  terrible  down-come 
at  Tannenberg,  that  ignominious  dismissal  out  of  West- 
I'reussen  with  kicks.  Their  insolence,  luxury,  degeneracy 
had  gone  to  great  lengths.  Nor  did  that  humiliation  mend 
them  at  all ;  the  reverse  rather.  It  was  deeply  hidden  from 
the  young  Hochmeister  as  from  them,  That  probably  they 
were  now  at  length  got  to  the  end  of  thfeir  capability  :  and 
ready  to  be  withdrawn  from  the  scene,  as  soon  as  any  good 
way  offered  I  —  Of  course,  they  were  reluctant  enough  to  fulill 
their  bargain  to  Poland ;  very  loath  they  to  do  Homage  now 
for  Preussen,  and  own  themselves  sunk  to  the  second  degree. 
Por  the  RitttTs  had  still  their  old  haughtiness  of  humor, 
tlieir  deei>seated  pride  of  place,  gone  now  into  the  unhappy 
conjicioiis  state.  That  is  usually  the  last  thing  that  deserts  a 
sinking  House  :  pride  of  place,  gone  to  the  conscious  state  ;  — 
as  if,  in  a  reverse  manner,  the  House  felt  that  it  deserved  to 
sink. 

For  the  rest,  Albert's  position  among  them  was  what 
Friedrich  of  Sachsen's  had  been ;  worse,  not  better ;  and 
the  main  ultimate  difference  was,  he  did  not  die  of  it,  like 
Friedrich  of  Sachsen;  but  found  an  outlet,  not  open  in 
Friedrich's  time,  and  lived.  To  the  Ritters,  and  vague  Public 
which  called  itself  the  Reich,  Albert  had  i)romised  he  would 
refuse  the  Homage  to  Poland ;  on  which  Ritters  and  Reich 
had  clapt  their  hands :  and  that  was  pretty  much  all  the  as- 
sistance he  got  of  them.  The  Reich,  as  a  formal  body, 
had  never  asserted  its  right  to  Preussen,  nor  indeed  spoken 
definitely  on  the  subject :  it  was  only  the  vague  Public  that 
had  spoken,  in  the  name  of  the  Reich.  From  the  Reich,  or 
from  any  individual  of  it.  Kaiser  or  Prince,  when  actui^i^y 
1  Voigt,  ix.  740-749  ;  Pauli,  iv.  404-407. 


CiiAP.Vl.  HOCHMEISTER  ALBERT.  203 

1510-1552. 

applied  to,  Albert  could  get  simply  nothing.  From  what 
Eitters  were  in  Preussen,  he  might  perhaps  expect  prompti- 
tude to  fight,  if  it  came  to  that;  which  was  not  much  as 
things  stood.  But  from  the  great  body  of  the  Kitters,  scat- 
tered over  Germany,  with  their  rich  territories  (baileys, 
bailliwicks),  safe  resources,  and  comfortable  "  Teutschmeis- 
ter  ■ '  over  them,  he  got  flat  refusal :  *  ''  We  will  not  be  con- 
cerned in  the  adventure  at  all ;  we  wish  you  well  through 
it !  ■'  Never  was  a  spirited  young  fellow  placed  in  more  im- 
possible position. 

His  Brother  Casiniir  (George  was  then  in  Hungary),  his 
Cousin  Joachim  Kur-Braudeuburg,  Friedrich  Duke  of  Lieg- 
uitz,  a  Silesian  connection  of  the  Family,'*  consulted,  advised, 
negotiated  to  all  lengths ;  Albert's  own  effort  was  incessant. 
"  Agree  with  King  Sigismund,"  said  they  ;  ''  Uucle  Sigismund, 
your  good  Mother's  Brother;  a  King  softly  inclined  to  us 
all!"  —  "How  agree?"  answered  Albert:  ''He  insists  on 
the  Homage,  which  I  have  promised  not  to  give  !  "  Casimir 
went  and  came,  to  Konigsberg,  to  Berlin  ;  went  once  himself 
to  Cracow,  to  the  King,  on  this  errand :  but  it  was  a  case  of 
"  Yes  ami  No  ; "  not  to  be  solved  by  Casimir. 

As  to  King  Sigismund,  he  Avas  patient  with  it  to  a  de- 
gree; made  the  friendliest  paternal  professions;  —  testifying 
withal,  That  the  claim  was  undeniable  ;  and  could  by  him,  Sig- 
ismund, never  be  foregone  with  the  least  shadow  of  honor, 
and  of  course  never  would:  "My^ear  Nephew  can  consider 

1  The  titles  Uochmeister  and  Teutschmeister  are  defined,  in  many  Books  and 
in  all  manner  of  Dictionaries,  as  meaning  the  same  thing.  But  that  is  not 
quite  tlie  case.  Tliey  were  at  first  sj-nonymous,  so  far  as  I  can  see ;  and  after 
Albert's  time,  they  again  became  so ;  but  at  the  date  where  we  now  arc,  and 
for  a  long  while  back,  they  represent  different  entities,  and  indeed  oftenest, 
since  the  Prussian  Decline  began,  antagonistic  ones.  Teutschmeister,  Sub- 
president  over  the  German  affairs  and  possessions  of  the  Order,  resides  at 
Mergentheim  in  that  Country  :  Hochmeister  is  Chief  President  of  the  whole, 
but  resident  at  Marieuburg  in  Preussen  ;  and  feels  there  acutely  where  the 
shoe  pinches,  —  much  too  acutely,  thinks  the  Teutschmeister  in  his  soft  list- 
slippers,  at  ilergcntheim  in  the  safe  Wiirzbnrg  region 

2  "  Duke  Friedrich  II. : "  comes  by  mothers  from  Kurfnrst  Friedrich  I. ; 
marries  Margraf  George's  Daughter  even  now,  1519  (Hiibner,  tt.  179,  100, 
101). 


204    THE  IIUIIENZOLLEKNS   IN   BKANDENBUliG.  Book  III. 

1525. 

whether  his  dissolute,  vain-minded,  half-heretical  Ritterdom, 
nay  whether  this  Prussian  fraction  of  it,  is  in  a  condition  to 
take  Poland  by  the  beard  in  an  unjust  quarrel ;  or  can  hope 
to  do  Tannenberg  over  again  in  the  reverse  way,  by  Beelze- 
bub's help  ?  "  — 

For  seven  years,  Albert  held  out  in  this  intermediate  state, 
neither  peace  nor  war ;  moving  Heaven  and  Earth  to  raise 
supplies,  that  he  might  be  able  to  defy  Poland,  and  begin 
war.  The  Reich  answers,  ''  We  have  really  nothing  for  you." 
Teutschmeister  answers  again  and  again,  "  I  tell  you  we  have 
nothing !  "  In  the  end,  Sigismund  grew  impatient ;  made 
(December,  1510)  some  movements  of  a  hostile  nature.  Albert 
did  not  yield  ;  eager  only  to  procrastinate  till  he  were  ready. 
By  superhuman  efforts,  of  borrowing,  bargaining,  soliciting, 
and  galloping  to  and  fro,  Albert  did,  about  the  end  of  next 
year,  get  up  some  appearance  of  an  Army  :  "  14,000  German 
mercenaries  horse  and  foot,"  so  many  in  theory ;  who,  to  the 
extent  of  8,000  in  actual  result,  came  marching  towards  him 
(October,  1520) ;  to  serve  *'  for  eight  months."  With  these  he 
will  besiege  Dantzig,  besiege  Thorn ;  will  plunge,  suddenly, 
like  a  fiery  javelin,  into  the  heart  of  Poland,  and  make  Po- 
land surrender  its  claim.  Whereujion  King  Sigismund  be- 
stirred himself  in  earnest ;  came  out  with  vast  clouds  of 
Polish  chivalry  ;  overset  Albert's  8,000  ;  —  who  took  to  eat- 
ing the  country,  instead  of  fighting  for  it ;  being  indeed  in 
want  of  all  things.  One  of  the  gladdest  days  Albert  had  yet 
seen,  was  when  he  got  the  8,000  sent  home  again. 

"What  then  is  to  be  done  ?  "  Armistice  for  four  years," 
Sigismund  was  still  kind  enough  to  consent  to  that :  "  Truce 
for  four  years  :  try  everywhere,  my  poor  Nephew ;  after  that, 
your  mind  will  perhaps  become  pliant."  Albert  tried  the 
Reich  again :  "  Four  years,  0  Princes,  and  then  I  must  do  it,  or 
be  eaten  ! "  Reich,  busy  with  Lutheran-Papal,  Turk-Christian 
quarrels,  merely  shrugged  its  shoulders  upon  Albert.  Teutsch- 
meister did  the  like  ;  everybody  the  like.  In  Heaven  or  Earth, 
then,  is  there  no  hope  for  me?  thought  Albert.  And  his 
stock  of  ready  money — we  will  not  speak  of  that! 

Meanwhile  Dr.  Osiander  of  Anspach  had  come  to  him ;   and 


Chap.  VI.  ^     HOCHMEISTER  ALBERT.  205 

IbZb. 

the  pious  young  man  was  getting  utterly  shaken  in  his  re- 
ligion. Monkish  vows,  Pope,  Holy  Church  itself,  what  is  one 
to  think,  Herr  Doctor  ?  Albert,  religious  to  an  eminent 
degree,  was  getting  deep  into  Protestantism.  In  his  many 
journeyings,  to  Niirnberg,  to  Brandenburg,  and  up  and  down, 
he  had  been  at  Wittenberg  too :  he  saw  Luther  in  person 
more  than  once  there  ;  corresponded  with  Luther ;  in  fine 
believed  in  the  truth  of  Luther.  The  Culmbach  Brothers 
were  both,  at  least  George  ardently  was,  inclined  to  Protest- 
antism, as  we  have  seen ;  but  Albert  was  foremost  of  the  three 
in  this  course.  Osiander  and  flights  of  zealous  Culmbach 
Preachers  made  many  converts  in  Preussen.  In  these  cir- 
cumstances the  Four  Years  came  to  a  close. 

AJbert,  we  may  believe,  is  greatly  at  a  loss ;  and  deep  de- 
liberations, Culmbach,  Berlin,  Liegnitz,  Poland  all  called  in, 
are  held  :  —  a  case  beyond  measure  intricate.  You  have  given 
your  word;  word  must  be  kept, — and  cannot,  without  plain 
hurt,  or  ruin  even,  to  those  that  took  it  of  you.  Withdraw, 
therefore  ;  fling  it  up  !  —  Fling  it  up  ?  A  valuable  article  to 
fling  up ;  fling  it  up  is  the  last  resource.  Nay,  in  fact,  to 
whom  will  you  fling  it  up?  The  Prussian  Bitters  them- 
selves are  getting  greatly  divided  on  the  point;  and  at  last 
on  all  manner  of  points.  Protestantism  ever  more  spreading 
among  them.  As  for  the  German  Brethren,  they  and  their 
comfortable  Teutschmeister,  who  refused  to  partake  in  the 
dangerous  adventure  at  all;  are  they  entitled  to  have  much 
to  say  in  the  settlement  of  it  now  ?  — 

Among  others,  or  as  chief  oracle  of  all,  Luther  was  con- 
sulted. "What  would  you  have  me  do  towards  reforming 
the  Teutsch  Order  ?  "  inquired  Albert  of  his  oracle.  Luther's 
answer  was,  as  may  be  guessed,  emphatic.  "Luther,"  says 
one  reporter,  "has  in  his  Writings  declared  the  Order  to  be 
'  a  thing  serviceable  neither  to  God  nor  man,'  and  the  consti- 
tution of  it  '  a  monstrous,  frightful,  hermaphroditish,  neither 
secular  nor  spiritual  constitution.'  "  ^  We  do  not  know  what 
Luther's  answer  to  Albert  was  ;  —  but  can  infer  the  purport 
of  it :  That  such  a  Teutsch  Kitterdom  was  not,  at  any  rate, 
1  C.  J.  Weber,  Das  Ritterwesen  (Stuttgard,  1837),  iii.  208. 


203        IIOIIENZOLLERNS  IN  BRANDENBURG.  Book  III. 

8tli  April,  1525. 

a  thing  long  for  this  worki ;  that  white  cloaks  with  black 
crosses  oii  them  would  not,  of  themselves,  profit  any  Ritter- 
dom ;  that  solemn  vows  and  higii  supramuudane  jirofessions, 
followed  by  sucli  practice  as  was  notorious,  are  an  afflicting, 
not  to  say  a  damnable,  spectacle  on  God's  Earth  ;  —  that  a 
young  Herr  had  better  nuury ;  better  have  done  with  the 
wretched  Babylonian  Nightmare  of  Papistry  altogether ;  bet- 
ter shake  oneself  awake,  in  God's  name,  and  see  if  there  are 
not  still  monitions  in  the  eternal  sky  as  to  what  it  is  wise  to 
do,  and  wise  not  to  do!  —  This  I  imagine  to  have  been,  in 
modern  language,  the  purport  of  Dr.  Luther's  advice  to  Hoch- 
meister  Albrecht  on  the  present  interesting  occasion. 

It  is  certain,  Albert,  before  long,  took  this  course ;  Uncle 
Sigismund  and  the  resident  Officials  of  the  Eitterdom  having 
made  agreement  to  it  as  the  one  practicable  course.  The  man- 
ner as  follows :  1°.  Instead  of  Elected  Hochmeister,  let  us  be 
Hereditary  Duke  of  Preussen,  and  pay  homage  for  it  to  Uncle 
Sigismund  in  tiiat  character.  2°.  Such  of  the  resident  Officials 
of  the  Kitterdom  as  are  prepared  to  go  along  with  us,  we  will 
in  like  manner  constitute  permanent  Feudal  Proprietors  of 
what  they  now  possess  as  Life-rent,  and  they  shall  be  Sub- 
vassals  under  us  as  Hereditary  Duke.  3°.  In  all  which  Uncle 
Sigismund  and  the  Republic  of  Poland  engage  to  maintain  us 
against  the  world. 

That  is,  in  sum,  the  Transaction  entered  into,  by  King 
Sigismund  I.  of  Poland,  on  the  one  part,  and  Hochmeister 
Albert  and  his  Ritter  Officials,  such  as  went  along  with  him, 
(which  of  course  none  could  do  that  were  not  Protestant),  on 
the  other  part :  done  at  Cracow,  8th  April,  1525.*  Whereby 
Teutsch  Ritterdom,  the  Prussian  part  of  it,  vanished  from 

1  Rentsch,  p.  850. —  Here,  certified  by  Rentsch,  Voigt  and  others,  is  a 
worn-out  patch  of  Paper,  which  is  perhaps  worth  printing :  — 
1490,  May  17,  Albert  is  born.  1520,  November  17,  give  it  up. 

1511,  February  14,  Hochmeister.  1521,  April  10,  Truce  for  Four  Years. 

1519,  December,  King  Sigismund's     152.3,  June,  Albert  consults  Luther, 
first  hostile  movements.  1524,  November,  sees  Luther. 

1520,  October,  German  Mercenaries     1525,  April  8,   I'eace    of  Cracow,   and 
arrive.  Albert  to  be  Duke  of  Prussia. 

1520,  November,  try  Siege  of  Dantzig. 


Chap.  VI.  HOCHxMETSTER   ALBERT.  207 

151G-1552. 

the  world  ;  dissolviug  itself,  and  its  "  hermaphrodite  constitu- 
tion," like  a  kind  of  Male  Nunnery,  as  so  many  female  ones 
had  done  in  those  years.  A  Transaction  giving  rise  to  end- 
less criticism,  then  and  afterwards.  Transaction  plainly  not 
reconcilable  with  the  letter  of  the  law ;  and  liable  to  have 
logic  chopped  upon  it  to  any  amount,  and  to  all  lengths  of 
time.  The  Teutschmeister  and  his  German  Brethren  shrieked 
murder ;  the  whole  world,  then,  and  for  long  afterwards,  had 
much  to  say  and  argue. 

To,  us,  now  that  the  logic-chaff  is  all  laid  long  since,  the 
question  is  substantial,  not  formal.  If  the  Teutsch  llitterdom 
was  actually  at  this  time  dead,  actually  stumbling  about  as 
a  mere  galvanized  Lie  beginning  to  be  putrid,  —  then,  sure 
enough,  it  behooved  that  somebody  should  bury  it,  to  avoid 
pestilential  effects  in  the  neighborhood.  Somebody  or  other  ; 
—  hrst  Haying  the  skin  off',  as  was  natural,  and  taking  that  for 
his  trouble.  All  tui-ns,  in  substance,  on  this  latter  question ! 
If,  again,  the  Kitterdom  was  not  dead  —  ? 

And  truly  it  struggled  as  hard  as  Partridge  the  Almanac- 
maker  to  rebut  that  fatal  accusation;  complained  (Teutsch- 
meister and  German-Papist  part  of  it)  loudly  at  the  Diets ; 
got  Albert  and  his  consorts  put  to  the  Ban  {gedclvtet),  fiercely 
menaced  by  the  Kaiser  Karl  V.  But  nothing  came  of  all  that ; 
nothing  but  noise.  Albert  maintained  his  point ;  Kaiser  Karl 
always  found  his  hands  full  otherwise,  and  had  nothing  but 
stamped  parchments  and  menaces  to  fire  off  at  Albert.  Teutsch 
Eitterdom,  the  Popish  part  of  it,  did  enjoy  its  valuable  bailli- 
wicks,  and  very  considerable  rents  in  various  quarters  of  Ger- 
many and  Europe,  having  lost  only  Preussen;  and  walked 
about,  for  three  centuries  more,  with  money  in  its  pocket,  and 
a  solemn  white  gown  with  black  cross  on  its  back,  —  the  most 
opulent  Social  Club  in  existence,  and  an  excellent  place  for 
bestowing  younger  sons  of  sixteen  quarters.  But  it  was,  and 
continued  through  so  many  centuries,  in  every  essential  re- 
spect, a  solemn  Hypocrisy ;  a  functionless  merely  eating  Phan- 
tasm, of  the  nature  of  goblin,  hungry  ghost  or  ghoul  (of  which 
kind  there  are  many) ;  —  till  Napoleon  finally  ordered  it  to 
vanish  ;  its  time,  even  as  Phantasm,  being  come. 


208    THE   HOilENZOLLEKNS   IN   BKANDENHUKG.   B<h>k  IIL 

1510 -1052. 

Albert,  I  can  conjecture,  had  his  own  ditiiculties  as  Kegent 
in  rreussen.^  Protestant  Theology,  to  make  matters  worse 
for  him,  had  split  itself  furiously  into  'doxies  ;  and  there  was 
an  Usiandei'lsm  (Osiander  being  the  Duke's  chaplain),  much 
flamed  upon  by  the  more  orthodox  ism.  *'  Foreigners,"  too, 
German-Anspach  and  other,  were  ill  seen  by  the  native  gentle- 
men ;  yet  sometimes  got  encouragement.  One  Funccius,  a 
shining  Nurnberg  immigrant  there,  son-in-law  of  Osiander, 
who  from  Theology  got  into  Polities,  had  at  last  (1564)  to  be 
beheaded,  —  old  Duke  Albert  himself  "  bitterly  weeping  " 
about  him ;  for  it  was  none  of  Albert's  doing.  Probal)ly  his 
new  allodial  Kitter  gentlemen  were  not  the  most  submiss, 
when  made  hereditary  ?  We  can  only  hope  the  Duke  was 
a  Hohenzollern,  and  not  quite  unequal  to  his  task  in  this 
respect.  A  man  with  high  bald  brow  ;  magnificent  s])ade- 
beard ;  air  much-pondering,  almost  gaunt,  —  gaunt  kind  of 
eyes  especially,  and  a  slight  cast  in  them,  which  adds  to  his 
severity  of  lusja'ct.  lie  kept  his  i)Ossession  well,  every  inch 
of  it ;  and  left  all  safe  at  his  decease  in  loGS,  His  age  was 
then  near  eighty.  It  was  the  tenth  year  of  our  Elizabeth  as 
Queen;  invincible  A.rmada  not  yet  l>uilt ;  but  Alba  very  busy, 
cutting  otf  high  heads  in  Prabant;  and  stirring  up  the  Dutch 
to  such  fury  as  was  needful  for  exploding  Spain  and  him. 

This  Duke  Albert  was  a  profoundly  religious  man,  as  all 
thoughtful  men  then  were.  Much  given  to  Theology,  to  Doc- 
tors of  Divinity;  being  eager  to  know  God's  Laws  in  this 
Universe,  and  wholes<iniely  certain  of  damnation  if  he  should 
not  follow  them.  Foml  of  the  profane  Sciences  too,  especially 
of  Astronomy :  Erasmus  Reiidiold  and  his  Tabulce  Pruteniem 
were  once  very  celebrated ;  Erasmus  Reinhold  proclaims  grate- 
iiiUy  how  these  his  elaborate  Tables  (done  according  to  the 
latest  discoveries,  1551  and  onwards)  were  executed  upon 
Duke  Albert's  high  bounty ;  for  which  reason  they  are  dedi- 
cated  to  Duke  Albert,  and  called  "  Pniteniccc,''  meaning  Prus- 
sian.^ The  University  of  Konigsberg  was  already  founded 
several  years  before,  in  1544. 

Albert  had  not  failed  to  marry,  as  Luther  counselled :  by 

1   1 525-;  568.  2  Rentsch,  p.  855. 


Chap.  VII.  ALBERT  ALCIBIADES  209 

151(i-1552. 

liis  first  Wife  he  had  only  daughters  ;  by  his  second,  one  son, 
Albeit  Friedrich,  who,  without  opposition  or  dittieulty,  suc- 
ceeded his  Father.  Thus  was  Preussen  acquired  to  the  Hohen- 
zollorn  Family;  for,  before  long,  the  Electoral  branch  managed 
to  get  Mltbelchnung  (Co-infeftment),  that  is  to  say,  Event- 
ual Succession ;  and  Preussen  became  a  Family  Heritage,  as 
Anspach  and  Baireuth  were. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

ALBERT    ALCIBIADES. 

OxK  Avord  must  be  spent  on  poor  Albert,  'Casimir's  son,^  al- 
rinidy  mentioned.  This  poor  Albert,  whom  they  call  Alrihiades, 
maih'  a  great  noise  in  that  eitoch  ;  being  what  some  define  as 
the  "  Faihire  of  a  Fritz  ;  "  wlio  luis  really  features  of  him  we 
are  to  call  "  Friedrich  the  Great,"  but  who  burnt  away  his 
splvMidid  qualities  as  a  mere  temporary  shine  for  the  able 
tditors,  and  never  came  to  anything. 

A  high  and  gallant  young  fellow,  left  fatherless  in  child- 
hood ;  perhaps  he  came  too  early  into  power; — he  came,  at 
any  rate,  in  very  volcanic  times,  when  Germany  was  all  in 
convulsion ;  the  Old  Religion  and  the  New  having  at  length 
lu'oken  out  into  open  battle,  with  huge  results  to  be  hoped 
and  feared ;  and  the  largest  game  going  on,  in  sight  of  an 
adventurous  youth.  How  Albert  staked  in  it ;  how  he  played 
to  immense  heights  of  sudden  gain,  and  finally  to  utter  bank- 
ruptcy, I  cannot  explain  here  :  some  German  delineator  of 
luiman  destinies,  "  Artist "  worth  the  name,  if  there  were  any, 
might  find  in  him  a  fine  subject. 

He  was  ward  of  his  Uncle  George ;  and  the  probable  fact  is, 
no  guardian  could  have  been  more  faithful.  Xevertheless,  on 
approaching  the  years  of  majority,  of  majority  but  not  discre- 
tion, he  saw  good  to  quarrel  with  his  Uncle  ;  claimed  this  and 
that,  which  was  not  granted  :  quarrel  lasting  for  years.     Xay 

1  152''-v^i57. 


210    THE  IIOIIENZOLLERNS  IN  BRANDENBURG.    Book  III. 

matters  i-an  so  hi<^h  at  last,  it  was  like  to  come  to  war  between 
them,  had  not  George  beeu  wiser.  The  young  ieliow  aetually 
sent  a  cartel  to  his  Uncle  ;  challenged  him  to  mortal  combat, 
—  at  which  George  only  wagged  his  old  beard,  we  suppose, 
and  said  nothing.  Neighbors  interposed,  the  Diet  itself  in- 
terposed ;  and  the  matter  was  got  quenched  agJiin.  Leaving 
Albert,  let  us  hoiK»,  a  repentant  young  man.  We  said  he  was 
full  of  hre,  too  much  of  it  wildlire. 

His  profession  was  Arras;  he  shone  much  in  war;  went 
sla.shing  and  lighting  through  those  Sehuialkaldic  broils,  and 
others  of  his  time;  a  distinguished  cajttain ;  cutting  his  way 
towards  something  high,  he  saw  not  well  what.  He  had 
great  comradeship  with  Moritz  ol"  Siixony  in  the  wars:  two 
sworn  brotliers  they,  and  comrades  in  arms,:  —  it  is  the  same 
dexterous  Moritz,  who,  himself  a  Protestant,  managed  to  get 
his  too  Protestant  Cousin's  Electorate  of  Saxony  into  his 
hand,  by  luck  of  the  game ;  the  Moritz,  too,  from  whom 
Alljert  by  and  by  got  his  last  defeat,  giving  Moritz  his  death 
in  return.  That  was  the  finale  of  their  comradeship.  All 
things  end,  and  nothing  ceases  changing  till  it  end. 

He  was  by  position  originally  on  the  Kaiser's  side ;  had 
attained  great  eminence,  and  done  high  feats  of  arms  and 
generalship  in  his  service.  But  l)eing  a  Protestant  by  creed, 
he  changed  after  that  Schmalkaldic  downfall  (rout  of  Miihl- 
berg,  24th  April,  1547),  which  brought  Moritz  an  Electorate, 
and  nearly  cost  iloritz's  too  Protestant  Cousin  his  life  as 
well  as  lands.*  The  victorious  Kaiser  growing  now  very 
high  in  his  ways,  there  arose  complaints  against  him  from 
all  sides,  very  loud  from  the  Protestant  side ;  and  JMoritz 
and  Albert  took  to  arms,  with  loud  manifestos  and  the  other 
phenomena. 

This  was  early  in  1552,  five  years  after  ^luhlberg  Eout 
or  liattle.  The  there  victorious  Kaiser  was  now  suddenly 
almost  ruined;  chased  like  a  partridge  into  the  Innspruck 
;>rountains,  —  could  have  been  caught,  only  Moritz  would  not; 
"had  no  cage  to  hold  so  big  a  bird,"  he  said.     So  the  Treaty 

1  Account  of  it  in  De  Wette,  Lelxtisgeschichte  der  Uerzoge  zu  Sachsen  (Wei- 
mar, 1770).  pp.  32-35. 


Chap.  v:i.  ALBERT   ALCIBIADE3.  211 

1552. 

of  I'assau  was  made,  and  the  Kaiser  came  much  down  from 
his  lofty  ways.  Famed  Treaty  of  Passaii  (22d  August,  lool'), 
Avhich  was  the  finale  of  these  broils,  and  hushed  them  up  for 
a  Fourscore  years  to  come.  That  was  a  memorable  year  in 
Geriaan  lv(>formation  History. 

Albert,  meanwhile,  had  been  busy  in  the  interior  of  the 
country;  blazing  aloft  in  Frankenland,  his  native  quarter, 
with  a  success  that  astonished  all  men.  For  seven  months 
he  was  virtually  King  of  Germany ;  ransomed  Bamberg, 
ransoiiftd  A\'ijrzburg,  Is  iirnberg  (})laces  he  had  a  grudge  at) ; 
ransomed  all  manner  of  towns  and  places,  —  especially  rich 
r>isliops  and  their  towns,  with  Verbum,  DiahoVi  sticking  in 
thom,  —  at  enormous  sums.  King  of  the  world  for  a  brief 
season;  —  must  have  had  some  strange  thoughts  to  himself, 
had  they  been  recorded  for  us.  A  pious  man,  too ;  not  in 
the  least  like  "  Alcibiades,"  except  in  the  sudden  changes  of 
lortune  he  underwent.  His  Motto,  or  old  rhymed  Prayer, 
which  he  would  repeat  on  getting  into  the  saddle  for  mili- 
tar}' Vork, — a  rough  rhyme  of  his  own  composing,  —  is  still 
preserved.  Let  us  give  it,  with  an  English  fac-simile,  or 
roughest  mechanical  pencil-tracing, — by  wa}' of  glimpse  into 
the  heart  of  a  vanished  Time  and  its  Man-at-arms  :  * 

Das  wait  der  Herr  Jesus  Christ,  Guide  it  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,^ 

^fit  dem  Vatfr,  der  iilitr  iins  ist :  And  the  Father,  who  over  us  is: 

Wer  starker  ist  uls  dieser  Mann,  He  that  is  stronger  tliau  that  Man,' 

Der  komm  and  ihu  ein  Leid  mir  an.  Let  hiui  do  me  a  hurt  when  lie  can. 

He  was  at  the  Siege  of  Metz  (end  of  that  same  1552),  and 
a  principal  figure  there.  Readers  have  heard  of  the  Siege 
of  Metz :  How  Henry  II.  of  France  fished  up  those  "  Three 
Bishoprics  "  (]\Ietz,  Toul,  Verdun,  constituent  part  of  Lorraine, 
a  covetable  fraction  of  Teutschland)  from  the  trouljled  sea 
of  German  things,  by  aid  of  Moritz  now  Kur-Sachsen,  and 
of  Albert ;  and  would  not  throw  them  in  again,  according  to 
bargain,  when  Peace,  the  Peace  of  Passau  came.  How  Kaiser 
Karl  determined  to  have  them  back  before  the  year  ended, 

1  Rentsch,  p.  644. 

2  Read  "  Chris  "   or  "  Cliriz,"  for  the  rh}-me's  .sake. 
8  Sic. 


212    THE  IIOIIEXZOLLERXS  IN  BRANDENBURG.   B^-ok  III. 

cost  what  it  might;  ami  Henry  II.  to  keep  them,  cost  what 
it  might.  How  Guise  defended,  with  all  the  Chivalry  of 
France ;  and  Kaiser  Karl  besieged,*  with  an  Army  of  ltK),000 
men,  under  Duke  Alba  for  chief  captain.  Siege  protracted 
into  midwinter ;  and  the  "  sound  of  his  cannon  heard  at  Stras- 
burg,"  which  is  eighty  miles  off,  "  in  the  winter  niglits." ' 

It  had  depended  upon  Albert,  who  hung  in  the  distance 
with  an  army  of  his  own,  whether  the  Siege  could  even 
begin ;  but  he  joined  the  Kaiser,  \Knng  reconciled  again ; 
and  th(!  trenches  opened.  liy  the  valor  of  Guise  and  his 
Ciiivalry,  —  still  more  perhaps  by  the  iron  frosts  and  by  the 
sleety  rains  of  Winter,  and  the  hungers  and  the  hardslH[)s 
of  a  hundred  thousand  m»'n,  digging  vainly  at  the  ice-bound 
earth,  or  trampling  it  when  sleety  into  s^as  of  mud,  and 
tlicmselves  sinking  in  it,  of  dysentery,  famine,  toil  and  de- 
spair, as  they  cannonaded  day  and  night,  —  Metz  could  not 
be  taken.  "Impossible!"  said  the  Generals  with  one  voice, 
after  trying  it  for  a  couple  of  months.  ''Try  it  one  other 
ten  days,''  said  the  Kaiser  with  a  gloomy  fixity;  "let  us  all 
die,  or  else  do  it ! "  They  tried,  with  double  desperation, 
another  ten  days ;  cannon  booming  through  the  winter  mid- 
night far  and  wide,  four  score  miles  round :  "  Cannot  l)e  done, 
your  Majesty!  Cannot,  —  the  winter  and  the  mud,  and  Guise 
and  the  walls  ;  man's  strength  cannf)t  do  it  in  this  season. 
We  must  march  away ! ''  Karl  listened  in  silence ;  but  the 
tears  were  seen  to  run  down  his  proud  face,  now  not  so  young 
as  it  once  was :  "  Let  us  march,  then  I "  he  said,  in  a  low 
voice,  after  some  pause. 

Alcibiades  covered  the  retreat  to  Diedenhof  {Thionville 
they  now  call  it)  :  outmanceuvred  the  French,  retreated  with 
success  ;  he  had  already  captured  a  grand  Due  d'Aumale,  a 
Prince  of  the  Guises,  —  valuable  ransom  to  be  looked  for 
there.     It  was   thought   he   should  have   made   his   bargain 

1  19th  October,  1552,  and  omvards. 

-  Kolilcr,  Riirlts-IIistorle,  p.  45.3:  —  and  more  especially  JHfunzbelnstiffunfjm 
(XiiruUerg,  1729-1750).  ix.  121-129.  The  Year  of  this  Volume,  and  of  the 
Number  in  question,  is  1737;  the  Miinze  or  Medal  "recreated  upon"  is  of 
Henri  II. 


Chap.  yii.  ALBERT  ALCIBIADES.  213 

better  with  the  Kaiser,  before  starting;  but  he  had  neglected 
that.  Albert's  course  was  downward  thenceforth ;  Kaiser 
Karl's  too.  The  French  keep  these  ''Three  Uishoprics  (Trois 
Evi'diiis),''^  and  Teutschland  laments  the  loss  of  them,  to  this 
hour.  Kaiser  Karl,  as  some  write,  never  smiled  again ;  — 
abdicated,  not  long  after;  retired  into  the  jNIonastery  of  St. 
Just,  and  there  soon  died.  That  is  the  siege  of  i\Ietz,  where 
Alcibiades  was  heljtful.  His  own  bargain  with  the  Kaise»* 
should  have  Ijeen  better  made  beforehand. 

Di^satistied  with  any  Ijargain  he  could  now  get ;  dissatisfied 
with  the  Treaty  of  Passau,  with  such  a  finale  and  hushing-up 
of  the  Religious  Controversy,  and  in  general  witli  himself 
and  with  the  world,  Albert  again  drew  sword;  went  loose  at 
a  high  rate  u]»on  his  Bamberg-Wiirzburg  enemies,  and,  having 
raised  su])plies  there,  upon  Moritz  and  tliose  Passau-Treatiers. 
He  was  beaten  at  last  by  Moritz,  ''?^unday,  9th  July,  l;jo3," 
at  a  place  called  Sievershausen  in  the  Hanover  Country,  wliere 
^Moritz  himself  perished  in  the  action.  —  Albert  fled  thereupon 
to  France.  No  hope  in  France.  No  luck  in  other  small  and 
desperate  stakings  of  his :  the  game  is  done.  Albert  returns 
to  a  Sister  he  had,  to  her  Husband's  Court  in  Baden ;  a 
broken,  bare  and  bankrupt  man;  —  soon  dies  there,  chiltUess, 
leaving  the  shadow  of  a  name.^ 

His  death  brought  huge  troubles  upon  Baireuth  and  the 
Family  Possessions.  So  many  neighbors,  Bamberg,  Wiirz- 
burg  and  the  rest,  were  eager  for  retaliation ;  a  new  Kaiser 
greedy  for  confiscating.  Plassenburg  Castle  was  besieged, 
bombarded,  taken  by  famine  and  burnt ;  much  was  burnt  and 

^  Here,  cliiofly  from  Koliler  (MihizheJustigungen,  iii.  414-416),  is  the  chro- 
nolug}'  of  Albert's  operations  :  — 

Seizure  of  Niirnberg  &c.,  Uth  May  to  22d  June,  1552;  Innspruck  (with 
Treaty  of  Passau)  follows.  Then  Siege  of  Metz,  October  to  December,  1552; 
Bamberg,  Wiirzburg  and  Niirnberg  ransomed  again,  April,  1553;  Battle  of 
Sievershausen,  9th  July,  1553.  Wiirzburg  &c.  explode  against  him ;  Ban 
of  the  Em])ire,  4th  May,  1554;  To  France  thereupon;  returns,  hoping  to 
negotiate,  end  of  1556;  dies  at  Pforzheim,  at  his  Sister's,  8th  January,  1557. 
—  See  Pauli,  iii.  120-138.  See  also  Dr.  Kapp.  Erinnervnfjfn  an  diejenujcn 
Marhqrafen  See.  (a  reprint  from  the  Ardiiv/Ur  Geschiclde  und  Allerthumskunde 
in  Ober-Franken,  Year  1841). 


2U    THE  IIOIIENZOLLERNS  IN  BRANDENBUKG.    Book  III. 

1552. 

torn  to  waste.  Xay,  had  it  not  been  for  help  from  Berlin, 
the  Family  had  gone  to  ntter  ruin  in  those  parts.  For  this 
Alcibiades  had,  in  his  tnrn,  been  Guardian  to  Uncle  George's 
8on,  the  George  Friedrich  we  once  spoke  of,  still  a  minor,  but 
well  known  afterwards  ;  and  it  was  attempted,  by  an  eager 
Kaiser  Ferdiuand,  to  involve  this  poor  youth  in  his  Cousin's 
illegalities,  as  if  ^Vard  and  Guardian  had  been  one  person. 
Baireuth  whit-h  luul  been  Aleibiiulos's,  Anspach  which  was 
the  young  man's  own,  nay  Jiigerndorf  with  its  A})pendagcs, 
Avere  at  one  time  all  in  the  clutches  of  the  hawk,  —  had  not 
help  from  Berlin  been  there.  But  in  tlie  end,  the  I^aw  had  to 
be  allowed  its  course  ;  George  Fried ricli  got  his  own  Terri- 
tories back  (all  but  some  surreptitious  nibblings  in  the  Jiigern- 
dorf quarter,  to  be  noticed  elsewhere),  and  also  got  Baireuth, 
his  poor  Cousin's  Inheritance;  —  sole  heir,  he' now,  in  Culm- 
bach,  the  Line  of  Casimir  being  out. 

One  owns  to  a  kind  of  love  for  poor  Albert  Alcibiades.  In 
certain  sordid  times,  even  a  *'  Failure  of  a  Fritz  "  is  better 
than  some  Successes  that  are  going.  A  man  of  some  real 
nobleness,  this  Allx>rt ;  though  not  with  wisdom  enough,  not 
with  good  fortune  enough.  Could  he  liave  continued  to  "  rule 
the  situation  "  (as  our  French  friends  phrase  it) ;  to  march  the 
fanatical  Papistries,  and  Kaiser  Karl,  clear  out  of  it,  home  to 
Spain  and  San  Justo  a  little  earlier  ;  to  wave  the  coming 
Jesuitries  away,  as  with  a  flaming  sword ;  to  forbid  before- 
hand the  doleful  Thirty-Years  War,  and  the  still  dolefuler 
spiritiial  atrophy  (the  flaccid  Pedantry,  ever  rummaging  and 
rearranging  among  learned  marine-stores,  which  thinks  itself 
Wisdom  and  Insight ;  the  vague  maunderings,  flutings ;  indo- 
lent, impotent  day-dreaming  and  tobacco-smoking,  of  poor 
Motlern  Germany)  which  has  followed  therefrom,  —  Ach  Gott, 
he  might  have  been  a  "  Success  of  a  Fritz  "  three  times  over ! 
He  might  have  been  a  German  Cromwell ;  beckoning  his  Peo- 
ple to  fly,  eagle-like,  straight  towards  the  Sun  ;  instead  of  screw- 
ing about  it  in  that  sad,  uncertain,  and  far  too  spiral  manner  I 
—  But  it  lay  not  in  him;  not  in  his  capabilities  or  opportuni- 
ties, after  all :  and  v/e  but  waste  time  in  such  speculations. 


riiAP.  VIII.     MEANING   OF   THE  REFORMATION.  215 

I 5 10-1552. 


CHAPTER  YIII. 

HISTORICAL    MEANING    OF    THE    REFORMATION. 

The  Culmbacli  Brothers,  we  observe,  play  a  more  important 
part  in  that  era  than  their  seniors  and  chiefs  of  Brandenburg. 
These  Culinbachcrs,  Marp-af  George  and  Albert  of  Preussen 
at  the  head  of  them,  mairh  valiantly  forward  in  the  Peforina- 
tion  business  ;  while  Kur-Brandenhurg,  Joachim  I.,  their  senior 
Cousin,  is  talking  loud  at  Diets,  galloping  to  Innspruck  and  tho 
like,  zealous  on  the  Conservative  side  ;  and  Cardinal  Alln'rt, 
Kur-Mainz,  his  eloquent  brother,  is  eager  to  make  matters 
smooth  and  avoid  violent  methods. 

The  Reformation  was  the  gi-eat  Event  of  that  Sixteentii 
Century ;  according  as  a  man  did  something  in  that,  or  did 
nothing  and  obstructed  doing,  has  he  much  claim  to  memory, 
or  no  claim,  in  this  age  of  ours.  The  more  it  becomes  ap- 
parent that  the  Reformation  was  the  Event  then  transacting 
itself,  was  the  thing  that  Germany  and  Europe  either  did  or 
refused  to  do,  the  more  does  the  historical  significance  of  men 
attach  itself  to  the  phases  of  that  transaction.  Accordingly 
we  notice  henceforth  that  the  memorable  points  of  Branden- 
burg Histor}"-,  what  of  it  sticks  naturally  to  the  memory  of  a 
reader  or  student,  connect  themselves  of  their  own  accord, 
almost  all,  with  the  History  of  the  Reformation.  That  has 
proved  to  be  the  Law  of  Nature  in  regard  to  them,  softly 
establishing  itself ;  and  it  is  ours  to  follow  that  law. 

Brandenburg,  not  at  first  unanimously,  by  no  means  too 
inconsiderately,  but  with  overwhelming  unanimity  when  the 
matter  became  clear,  was  lucky  enough  to  adopt  the  Reforma- 
tion ;  —  and  stands  by  it  ever  since  in  its  ever-widening  scope, 
amid  such  difiiculties  as  there  might  be.  Brandenburg  had 
felt  somehow,  that  it  could  do  no  other.     And  ever  onwards 


21G    THE  HOHENZOLLERXS  IN  BRANDENBURG.  Book  III. 

1610-1552. 

through  the  times  even  of  our  little  Fritz  and  farther,  if  we 
will  understand  the  word  "  lieforniation,''  Urandenburg  so 
feels  ;  being,  at  this  day,  to  an  honorable  degree,  incapable  of 
believing  incredibilities,  of  adopting  solemn  shams,  or  pre- 
tending to  live  on  spiritual  nioonsliino.  Which  has  been  of 
uncountable  atlvantage  to  iSrandcnburg  :  —  how  could  it  fail  ? 
This  was  what  we  must  call  obeying  the  audible  voice  of 
Heaven.  To  which  same  "  voice,"  at  that  time,  all  that  did 
not  give  ear,  — what  has  become  of  them  since  ;  have  they  not 
signally  had  the  penalties  to  pay  ! 

'•  Tcnaltics  :  "  (juarrel  not  with  the  old  phraseology,  good 
reader;  attend  rather  to  the  thing  it  means.  The  word  was 
heard  of  old,  with  a  right  solemn  meaning  attached  to  it,  from 
theological  jtuljjits  and  such  places;  and  may  still  be  heard 
there  with  a  half-meaning,  or  with  no  meaning,  though  it  has 
rather  become  obsolete  to  modern  ears.  But  the  thing  should 
not  have  fallen  obsolete  ;  the  thing  is  a  grand  and  solemn 
truth,  cxi)ressive  of  a  silent  Law  of  Heaven,  which  continues 
forever  valid.  The  most  untheological  of  men  may  still  assert 
the  thing ;  and  invite  all  men  to  notice  it,  as  a  silent  monition 
and  projiliecy  in  this  Universe  ;  to  take  it,  with  more  of  awe 
than  they  are  wont,  as  a  correct  reading  of  the  Will  of  the 
Eternal  in  respect  of  such  matters  ;  and,  in  their  modern 
sphere,  to  bear  the  same  well  in  mind.  For  it  is  perfectly 
certain,  and  may  be  seen  with  eyes  in  any  quarter  of  Europe 
at  this  day. 

I'rotestant  or  not  Protestant  ?  The  question  meant  every- 
where :  "  Is  there  anything  of  nobleness  in  you,  0  Nation, 
or  is  there  nothing  ?  Are  there,  in  this  Nation,  enough  of 
heroic  men  to  venture  forward,  and  to  battle  for  God's  Truth 
versxcs  the  Devil's  Falsehood,  at  the  peril  of  life  and  more  ? 
Men  who  prefer  death,  and  all  else,  to  living  under  Falsehood, 
—  who,  once  for  all,  will  not  live  under  Falsehood ;  but  having 
drawn  the  sword  against  it  (the  time  being  come  for  that  rare 
and  important  step),  throw  away  the  scabbard,  and  can  say, 
in  pious  clearness,  with  their  whole  soul :  '  Come  on,  then ! 
Life  under  Falsehood  is  not  good  for  me ;  and  we  will  try  it 
out  now.     Let  it  be  to  the  death  between  us,  then  ! ' " 


Chap.  viti.    MEANING  OF  THE  KEFORMATION.  217 

1510-1552. 

Once  risen  into  this  divine  white-heat  of  temper,  were 
it  only  for  a  season  and  not  again,  the  Nation  is  thenceforth 
considerable  through  all  its  remaining  histoiy.  What  im- 
mensities of  dross  and  crypto-poisonous  matter  will  it  not 
burn  out  of  itself  in  that  high  temperature,  in  the  course  of 
a  few  years  !  Witness  Cromwell  and  his  I'uritans,  — making 
England  habitable  even  under  the  Charles-Second  terms  for 
a  couple  of  centuries  more.  Nations  are  benefited,  I  believe, 
for  ages,  by  being  thrown  once  into  divine  white-heat  in  this 
mann^.  And  no  Nation  that  has  not  had  such  divine  par- 
oxysms at  any  time  is  apt  to  come  to  much. 

That  was  now,  in  this  epoch,  the  English  of  "adopting 
Trotestantism ; "  and  we  need  not  wonder  at  the  results 
whii-li  it  has  had,  and  which  the  want  of  it  has  had.  For  the 
want  of  it  is  literally  the  want  of  loyalty  to  the  Maker  of  this 
Universe.  He  who  wants  that,  what  else  has  he,  or  can  he 
have  ?  If  you  do  not,  you  Man  or  you  Nation,  love  the  Truth 
enough,  but  try  to  make  a  chapman-bargain  with  Truth,  instead 
of  giving  yourself  wholly  soul  and  body  and  life  to  her.  Truth 
will  not  live  with  you,  Truth  will  depart  from  you ;  and  only 
Logic,  "Wit"  (for  example,  "London  Wit"),  Sophistry,  Virtu, 
the  yEsthetic  Arts,  and  perhaps  (for  a  short  while)  Book- 
keeping by  Double  Entry,  will  abide  with  you.  You  will  fol- 
low falsity,  and  think  it  truth,  you  unfortunate  man  or  nation. 
You  will  right  surely,  you  for  one,  stumble  to  the  Devil ;  and 
are  every  day  and  hour,  little  as  you  imagine  it,  making  prog- 
ress thither. 

Austria,  Spain,  Italy,  France,  Poland,  —  the  offer  of  the 
Reformation  was  made  everywhere ;  and  it  is  curious  to  see 
what  has  become  of  the  nations  that  would  not  hear  it.  In 
all  countries  were  some  that  accepted ;  but  in  many  there 
were  not  enough,  and  the  rest,  slowly  or  swiftly,  with  fatal 
difficult  industry,  contrived  to  burn  them  out.  Austria  was 
once  full  of  Protestants ;  but  the  hide-bound  Flemish-Spanish 
Kaiser-element  presiding  over  it,  obstinately,  for  two  cen- 
turies, kept  saying,  "  No ;  we,  with  our  dull  obstinate  Cim- 
burgis  under-lip  and  lazy  eyes,  with  our  ponderous  Austrian 


218    THE  IIOIIENZOLLERNS  IN  BRANDENBURG.  B^x^k  ill. 

luKJ-lyj'i. 

depth  of  Habituality  and  indolence  of  Intellect,  we  prefer 
steady  Darkness  to  nncertain  new  Light  I  " — and  all  men 
may  see  where  Austria  now  is.  Spain  still  more ;  poor 
Spain,  going  about,  at  this  time,  making  its  " jprouunciami- 
entos;"  all  the  factious  attorneys  in  its  little  towns  assem- 
bling to  pronounce  virtually  this,  "  The  Old  is  a  lie,  then  ;  — 
good  Heavens,  after  we  so  long  tried  hard,  harder  than  any 
nation,  to  thhik  it  a  truth !  —  and  if  it  be  not  Rights  of 
Mau,  Rod  Rei)ublic  and  Progress  of  the  Species,  we  know 
not  what  now  to  believe  or  to  do ;  and  are  as  a  people  stum- 
bling on  steep  places,  in  the  darkness  of  midnight !  "  —  They 
refused  Truth  when  she  came ;  and  now  Truth  knows  noth- 
ing of  them.  All  stars,  and  heavenly  lights,  liave  become 
veiled  to  such  men ;  they  must  now  follow  terrestrial  ir/nes 
fatui,  and  think  them  stars.  That  is  the  dodm  passed  upon 
them. 

Italy  too  had  its  Protestants ;  but  Italy  killed  them ;  man- 
aged to  extinguish  I'rotestantism.  Italy  put  up  silently  with 
Practical  Lies  of  all  kinils ;  and,  shrugging  its  shoultlers, 
preferred  going  into  Dilettantism  and  the  Fine  Arts.  The 
Italians,  instead  of  the  sacred  service  of  Fact  and  Perform- 
ance, did  Music,  Painting,  and  the  like: — till  even  that  has 
become  impossible  for  them  ;  and  no  noble  Nation,  sunk  from 
virtue  to  virtu,  ever  offered  such  a  spectacle  before.  He  that 
will  prefer  Dilettantism  in  this  world  for  his  outfit,  shall  have 
it ;  but  all  the  gods  will  depart  from  him  ;  and  manful  ve- 
racity, earnestness  of  purpose,  devout  dei)th  of  soul,  shall  no 
more  be  his.  He  can  if  he  like  make  himself  a  soprano,  and 
sing  for  hire ;  —  and  probably  that  is  the  real  goal  for  him. 

But  the  sharpest-cut  example  is  France ;  to  which  we  con- 
stantly return  for  illustration.  France,  with  its  keen  intel- 
lect, saw  the  truth  and  saw  the  falsity,  in  those  Protestant 
times ;  and,  with  its  ardor  of  generous  impulse,  was  prone 
enough  to  adopt  the  former.  France  was  within  a  hair's- 
breadth  of  becoming  actually  Protestant.  But  France  saw 
good  to  massacre  Protestantism,  and  end  it  in  the  night  ot 
St.  Bartholomew,  1572.  The  celestial  Apparitor  of  Heaven's 
Chancery,  so  we  may  speak,  the  Genius  of  Fact  and  Veracity, 


Chai-.  IX.        ■  KURFURST  JOACHIM   I.  219 

lJlU-1552. 

had  left  liis  ^^'l•it  of  Summons  ;  Writ  was  read  ;  —  and  replied 
to  in  this  maimer.  The  Genius  of  Fact  and  Veracity  accord- 
ingly withdrew  ;  —  was  staved  off,  got  kept  away,  for  two 
hundi-ed  years.  But  the  writ  of  Summons  had  been  served ; 
Heaven's  Messenger  could  not  stay  away  forever.  No ;  he 
ri'turned  duly  ;  with  accounts  run  up,  on  compound  interest, 
to  the  actual  hour,  in  1792; — and  then,  at  last,  there  had 
to  be  a  "  Protestantism  ; "  and  we  know  of  what  kind  that 
was !  — 

Nations  did  not  so  understand  it,  nor  did  Brandenburg 
more  than  the  others ;  but  the  question  of  questions  for 
them  at  that  time,  decisive  of  their  history  for  half  a  thou- 
sand years  to  come,  was.  Will  you  obey  the  heavenly  voice, 
or  will  you  not  ? 


CHAl^TER   IX. 


KUUFURST   JOACUIM    I. 


Braxdenburg,  in  the  matter  of  the  Reformation,  was  at 
fii-st  —  with  Albert  of  Mainz,  Tetzel's  friend,  on  the  one  side, 
and  Pious  George  of  Anspach,  "  Xit  Kop  ah,^^  on  the  other  — 
certainly  a  divided  house.  But,  after  the  first  act,  it  conspicu- 
ously ceased  to  be  divided;  nay  Kur-Brandenburg  and  Kur- 
Mainz  themselves  had  known  tendencies  to  the  Reformation, 
and  were  well  aware  that  the  Church  could  not  stand  as  it  was. 
Nor  did  the  cause  want  partisans  in  Berlin,  in  Brandenburg,  — 
hardly  to  be  repressed  from  breaking  into  flame,  while  Kurf iirst 
Joachim  was  so  prudent  and  conservative.  Of  this  loud  Kur- 
furst  Joachim  I.,  here  and  there  mentioned  already,  let  us  now 
say  a  more  express  word.^ 

Joachim  I.,  Big  John's  son,  hesitated  hither  and  thither  for 
some  time,  trying  if  it  would  not  do  to  follow  the  Kaiser  Karl 
V.'s  lead ;  and  at  length,  crossed  in  his  temper  perhaps  by  the 
1  1484,  1499,  1535  :  birth,  accession,  death  of  Joachim. 


220    THE  HOHENZOLLERNS  IN  BRANDENBURG.  B<iok  III. 

15l(i-lo52. 

speed  his  friends  were  going  at,  declared  formally  against  any 
farther  Reformation ;  and  in  his  own  family  and  country  was 
strict  upon  the  point.  He  is  a  man,  as  I  judge,  by  no  means 
without  a  temper  of  his  own;  very  loud  occasionally  in  the 
Diets  and  elsewhere ;  —  reminds  me  a  little  of  a  certain  King 
Eriedrich  Wilhelm,  whom  my  readers  shall  know  by  and  by. 
A  big,  surly,  rather  bottle-nosed  man,  with  thick  lips,  abstruse 
wearied  eyes,  and  no  eyebrows  to  speak  of:  not  a  beautiful 
man,  when  you  cross  him  overmuch. 

Of  Joachim'' s  Wife  and  Brother-in-law. 

His  wife  was  a  Danish  Princess,  Sister  of  poor  Christian  II., 
King  of  that  Country :  dissolute  Christian,  who  took  up  with 
a  huckster-woman's  daughter,  —  ''  mother  sold  giugerbread,"  it 
would  appear,  "at  Bergen  in  Norway,"  where  Christian  was 
Viceroy ;  Christian  made  acceptable  love  to  the  daughter, 
"  Dlvike  (Dovekin,  Columbina),"  as  he  called  her.  Nay  he 
made  the  gingerbread  mother  a  kind  of  prime-minister,  said 
the  angry  public,  justly  scandalized  at  this  of  the  "Dovekin." 
He  was  married,  meanwhile,  to  Karl  V.'s  own  Sister ;  but  con- 
tinued that  other  connection.^  He  had  rash  notions,  now  for 
the  Reformation,  now  against  it,  when  he  got  to  be  King ;  a 
very  rash,  unwise,  explosive  man.  He  made  a  "  Stockholm 
BInthad  "  still  famed  in  History  (kind  of  open,  ordered  or  per- 
mitted. Massacre  of  eighty  or  a  hundred  of  his  chief  enemies 
there),  "Bloodbath,"  so  they  name  it;  in  Stockholm,  where 
indeed  he  was  lawful  King,  and  not  without  unlawful  enemies, 
had  a  bloodbath  been  the  way  to  deal  with  them.  Gustavus 
Vasa  was  a  young  fellow  there,  who  dexterously  escaped  this 
Bloodbath,  and  afterwards  came  to  something. 

In  Denmark  and  Sweden,  rash  Christian  made  ever  more 
enemies ;  at  length  he  was  forced  to  run,  and  they  chose 
another  King  or  successive  pair  of  Kings.  Christian  fled  to 
Kaiser  Karl  at  Brussels;   complained  to  Kaiser   Karl,  his 

^  Here  arc  the  dates  of  this  poor  Christian,  in  a  lump.  Bom,  1481  ;  King, 
1513  (Dovekin  before)  ;  married,  1515  ;  turned  off,  1523;  invades,  taken  pris- 
oner, 1532  ;  dies,  1559.     Cousin,  and  then  Cousin's  Son,  succeeded. 


Chap.  IX.  KURFURST   JOACHIM   I.  221 

151G-1552. 

Brother-in-law,  —  whose  Sister  he  had  not  used  well.  Kaiser 
Karl  listened  to  his  complaints,  with  hanging  under-lip,  with 
lieavy,  deep,  undecipherable  eyes  ;  evidently  no  help  from 
Karl. 

-Christian,  after  that,  wandered  about  with  inexecutable 
speculations,  and  projects  to  recover  his  crown  or  crowns ; 
sheltering  often  with  Kurfiirst  Joachim,  who  took  a  great  deal 
of  trouble  about  him,  first  and  last;  or  with  the  Elector  of 
Saxony,  Friedrich  the  Wise,  or  after  him,  with  Johann  the 
Steadfast  ("V.  D.  M.  I.  ^."  whom  we  saw  at  Augsburg),  who 
were  his  Mother's  Brothers,  and  beneficent  men.  He  was  in 
Saxony,  on  such  terms,  coming  and  going,  wlien  a  certain  other 
Flight  thither  took  place,  soon  to  be  spoken  of,  which  is  the 
cause  of  our  mentioning  him  here.  —  In  the  end  (a.d.  1532)  he 
did  get  some  force  together,  and  made  sail  to  Norway ;  but 
could  do  no  execution  whatever  there ;  —  on  the  contrary,  was 
frozen  in  on  the  coast  during  winter ;  seized,  carried  to  Copen- 
hagen, and  packed  into  the  "Castle  of  Sonderburg,"  a  grim 
sea-lodging  on  the  shore  of  Schleswig,  —  prisoner  for  the  rest 
of  his  life,  which  lasted  long  enough.  Six-and-twenty  years 
of  prison;  the  first  seventeen  years  of  it  strict  and  hard, 
almost  of  the  dungeon  sort ;  the  remainder,  on  his  fairly  abdi- 
cating, was  in  another  Castle,  that  of  Callundborg  in  the  Island 
of  Zealand,  "  with  fine  apartments  and  conveniences,"  and 
even  "  a  good  bouse  of  liquor  now  and  then,"  at  discretion  of 
the  old  soul.  That  was  the  end  of  headlong  Christian  II. ;  he 
lasted  in  this  manner  to  the  age  of  seventy-eight.^ 

His  Sister  Elizabeth  at  Brandenburg  is  perhaps,  in  regard 
to  natural  character,  recognizably  of  the  same  kin  as  Chris- 
tian ;  but  her  behavior  is  far  different  from  his.  She  too  is 
zealous  for  the  Eeformation ;  but  she  has  a  right  to  be  so,  and 
her  notions  that  way  are  steady  ;  and  she  has  hitherto,  though 
in  a  difficult  position,  done  honor  to  her  creed.  Surly  Joachim 
is  difficult  to  deal  with ;  is  very  positive  now  that  he  has  de- 
clared himself :  "  In  my  house  at  least  shall  be  nothing  farther 

1  Kohler,  Munzheliiet!g\mgen,  xi.  47,  48  ;  Holberg,  Dunemarckische  Staats-  nnd 
Reichs-Historie  (Copenhagen,  1731,  not  the  big  Book  hy  Holberg),  p.  241 ; 
Buddaus,  Allgemeines  Historisches  Lexicon  (Leipzig,  1709),  §  Christianus  II. 


222    THE  HOIIEXZOLLERXS  IN  BRANDENBURG.   Book  III. 

1528. 

of  that  unblessed  stuff."  Poor  Lady,  I  see  domestic  difficulties 
\ery  thick  upon  her;  nothing  but  division,  the  very  children 
ranging  themselves  in  parties.  She  can  pray  to  Heaven;  she 
must  do  her  wisest. 

She  partook  once,  by  some  secret  opportunity,  of  the  "  com- 
munion under  both  kinds ; "  one  of  her  Daughters  noticed  and 
knew ;  told  Father  of  it.  Father  knits  up  his  thick  lips ;  rolls 
his  abstruse  dissatisfied  eyes,  in  an  ominous  manner :  the  poor 
Lady,  probably  possessed  of  an  excitable  imagination  too, 
trembles  for  herself.  ''It  is  thought,  His  fhinhlaurht  will 
wall  you  up  for  life,  my  Serene  Lady;  dark  prison  for  life, 
which  probably  may  not  be  long !  "  These  surmises  were  of 
no  credibility :  but  there  and  then  the  poor  Laily,  in  a  shiver 
of  terror,  decides  that  she  must  run ;  goes  off  actually,  one 
night  ("  Monday  after  the  Lcetare"  which  w^  lind  is  24th 
March)  in  the  year  1528,*  in  a  mean  vehicle  under  cloud  of 
darkness,  with  only  one  maid  and  groom,  —  driving  for  life. 
That  is  very  certain :  she  too  is  on  flight  towards  Saxony,  to 
shelter  with  her  uncle  Kurfiirst  Johann,  —  unless  for  reasons 
of  state  he  scruple  ?  On  the  dark  road  her  vehicle  broke 
down  ;  a  spoke  given  way,  —  "  Not  a  bit  of  rope  to  splice  it," 
said  the  improvident  groom.  "  Take  my  lace-veil  here,"  said 
the  poor  I'rincess ;  ami  in  this  guise  she  got  to  Torgau  (I  could 
guess,  her  poor  Brother's  lodging),  —  and  thence,  in  short  time, 
to  the  fine  Schloss  of  Lichtenberg  hard  by ;  Uncle  Johann,  to 

^  Paul!  (ii.  r)84)  ;  who  cites  Seckendorf,  and  this  fn-^ction  of  a  Letter  of 
Luther's,  to  one  "  Linckns  "  or  Lincke,  written  on  the  P"ri(lay  following  (28th 
March,  1528):  — 

"  The  ElectreM  [Marffrarine  he  calls  her]  has  fled  from  Berlin,  by  help 
of  her  Brother  the  King  of  Denmark  [poor  Christian  IL]  to  our  Prince 
[Johann  the  Steadfast],  because  her  Elector  had  determined  to  wall  her  up, 
a.s  is  reported,  on  account  of  the  Eucharist  under  both  species.  Pray  for  our 
Prince ;  the  pwus  man  and  affectionate  soul  gets  a  tjreat  deal  of  trouUe  with  hia 
kindred."     Or  thus  in  the  Original :  — 

"  Marchionissa  aufugit  a  Berlin,  aurilio  fratris,  Regis  Danice,  ad  nostrum 
Principem,  quod  Mar chio  statuerat  earn  immurare  (iit  dicitur)  propter  Eucharistiam 
iitriuBfjiie  speciri.  Ora  pro  nostra  Principe  ;  der  fromme  Mann  und  herzliche 
Mensch  ist  doch  ja  wolil  geplaget "  (Seckendorf,  Uistoria  Lutheranismi,  ii. 
§  62,  No.  8,  p.  122). 


Chap.  IX.  KURFURST  JOACHIM   I.  223 

1510-1552. 

whom  she  liad  zealously  left  an  option  of  refusal,  having  as 
zealously  permitted  and  invited  her  to  continue  there.  AMiicli 
she  did  for  many  years. 

Nor  did  she  get  the  least  molestation  from  Husband 
Joachim ;  Avho  I  conjecture  had  intended,  though  a  man  of 
a  certain  temper,  and  strict  in  his  own  house,  something 
short  of  walling  up  for  life  :  —  poor  Joachim  withal !  "  How- 
ever, since  you  are  gone,  Madam,  go !  "  Nor  did  he  concern 
himself  with  Christian  II.  farther,  hut  let  him  lie  in  prison 
at  his»leisure.  As  for  the  Latly,  he  even  let  his  children  visit 
her  at  Lieliteuberg ;  Crypto-Protestants  all ;  and,  among  them, 
the  repentant  Daughter  who  had  peached  upon  her. 

I'oor  Joachim,  he  makes  a  pious  speech  on  his  death-brd, 
solemnly  wai-ning  his  8on  against  tliese  new-fangled  lieresies ; 
the  Son  being  already  possessed  of  them  in  his  heart.^  What 
could  Father  do  more  ?  Both  Father  and  Son,  I  suppose, 
were  weeping.  This  was  in  15.35,  this  last  scene ;  things 
looking  now  more  ominous  than  ever.  Of  Kurfiirst  Joacliim 
I  Avill  remember  nothing  farther,  except  that  once,  twenty- 
tliree  years  before,  he  "held  a  Tourney  in  Neu-Euppin,"  year 
1512 ;  Tourney  on  the  most  magniticent  scale,  and  in  Xew- 
Ivuppin,-  a  place  we  shall  know  by  and  by. 

As  to  the  Lady,  she  lived  eighteen  years  in  that  fine  Schloss 
of  Liehtenberg  ;  saw  her  children  as  we  said ;  and,  silently  or 
otherwise,  rejoiced  in  the  creed  they  were  getting.  She  saw 
Luther's  self  sometimes  ;  "  had  him  several  times  to  dinner ;  " 
he  would  call  at  her  ^Mansion,  when  his  journeys  lay  that  way. 
She  corresponded  with  him  diligently ;  nay  once,  for  a  three 
months,  she  herself  went  across  and  lodged  with  Dr.  Luther 
and  his  Kate  ;  as  a  royal  Lady  might  with  a  heroic  Sage,  — 
though  the  Sage's  income  was  only  Twenty-four  pounds  ster- 
ling annually.  There  is  no  doubt  about  that  visit  of  three 
months ;  one  thinks  of  it,  as  of  something  human,  something 
homely,  ingenuous  and  pretty.  Nothing  in  surly  Joachim's 
history  is  half  so  memorable  to  me,  or  indeed  memorable  at 
all  in  the  stage  we  are  now  come  to. 

The  Lady  survived  Joachim  twenty  years ;  of  these  she 
1  Speech  given  iu  Kentsch,  pp.  434-439.  2  Pauli,  ii.  466. 


224    THE  HOHENZOLLERNS  IX  BRANDENBURG.    Book  III. 

l.jiti-lS.J-i. 

spent  eleven  still  at  Lichtenberg,  in  no  over-haste  to  return. 
However,  her  Son,  the  new  Elector,  declaring  for  Protestant- 
ism, she  at  length  yielded  to  his  invitations :  came  back 
(lo4G),  and  ended  her  days  at  Berlin  in  a  peaceable  and 
venerable  manner.  Luckless  Brother  Christian  is  lying  under 
lock-and-key  all  this  while ;  smuggling  out  messages,  and  so 
on ;  like  a  voice  from  the  land  of  Dreams  or  of  Nightmares, 
painful,  impracticable,  coming  now  and  then. 


CHAPTER   X. 


Kl'KFl'KST    JOACHIM    II. 


Joachim  II.,  Sixth  Elector,  no  doubt  after  painful  study, 
and  intricate  silent  consideration  ever  since  his  twelfth  year 
when  Lutlier  was  first  heard  of  over  the  world,  came  grad- 
ually, and  before  his  Father's  death  had  alreatly  come,  to  the 
conclusion  of  adopting  the  Confession  of  Augsburg,  as  the  true 
Interj>retation  of  this  Universe,  so  far  as  we  had  yet  got ;  and 
did  so,  publicly,  in  the  year  1539.*  To  the  great  joy  of  Ber- 
lin and  the  Brandenburg  populations  generally,  who  had  been 
of  a  Protestant  humor,  hardly  restrainable  by  Law,  for  some 
years  past.  By  this  decision  Joachim  held  fast,  with  a  stout, 
weighty  grasp ;  nothing  spasmodic  in  his  way  of  handling 
the  matter,  and  yet  a  heartiness  which  is  agreeable  to  see. 
He  could  not  join  in  the  Schmalkaldic  War ;  seeing,  it  is  prob- 
able, small  chance  for  such  a  War,  of  many  chiefs  and  little 
counsel;  nor  was  he  willing  yet  to  part  from  the  Kaisev 
Karl  v.,  who  was  otherwise  very  good  to  him. 

He  had  fought  personally  for  this  Kaiser,  twice  over, 
against  the  Turks  ;  first  as  Brandenburg  Captain,  learning 
his  art;  and  afterwards  as  Kaiser's  Generalissimo,  in  1542. 
He  did  no  good  upon  the  Turks,  on  that  latter  occasion ;  as 
indeed  what  good  was  to  be  done,  in  such  a  quagmire  of  futili- 
>  Rcntsch,  p.  452. 


CiiAP.  X.  KUEFURST  JOACHIM   II.  225 

151G-1552. 

ties  as  Joachim's  element  there  was?  "Too  sumptuous  in 
his  dinners,  too  much  wine  withal ! "  hint  some  calumni- 
ously.^  "  Hector  of  Germany  !  "  say  others.  He  tried  some 
small  prefatory  Siege  or  scalade  of  Pesth ;  could  not  do  it ; 
arid  came  his  ways  home  again,  as  the  best  course.  Pedant 
Chroniclers  give  him  the  name  Hector,  "  Joachim  Hector,"  — 
to  match  that  of  Cicero  and  that  of  Achilles.  A  man  of  solid 
structure,  this  our  Hector,  in  body  and  mind :  extensive 
cheeks,  very  large  heavy-laden  face  ;  capable  of  terrible  bursts 
of  an^er,  as  his  kind  generally  were. 

The  Schmalkaldic  War  went  to  water,  as  the  Germans 
phrase  it:  Kur-Sachsen,  —  that  is,  Johann  Friedrich  the  Mag- 
nanimous, Son  of  Johann  ''  V.  D.  M.  I.  ^.,"  and  Nephew  of 
Friedrich  the  Wise, — had  his  sorrowfully  valid  reasons  for 
the  War  ;  large  force  too,  plenty  of  zealous  copartners,  Philip 
of  Hessen  and  others  ;  but  no  generalship,  or  not  enough,  for 
such  a  business.  Big  Army,  as  is  apt  enough  to  happen,  fell 
short  of  food;  Kaiser  Karl  hung  on  the  outskirts,  Avaiting 
con-fidently  till  it  came  to  famine.  Johann  Friedrich  would 
attempt  nothing  decisive  while  provender  lasted  ;  —  and  hav- 
ing in  the  end,  strangely  enough,  and  somewhat  deaf  to 
advice,  divided  his  big  Army  into  three  separate  parts, — 
Joliann  Friedrich  was  himself,  with  one  of  those  parts, 
surprised  at  ^liihlberg,  on  a  Sunday  when  at  church  (24th 
April,  1547) ;  and  was  there  beaten  to  sudden  ruin,  and  even 
taken  captive,  like  to  have  his  head  cut  off,  by  the  trium- 
phant angry  Kaiser.  Philip  of  Hessen,  somewhat  wiser,  was 
home  to  Marburg,  safe  with  his  part,  in  the  interim.  —  Elec- 
tor Joachim  II.  of  Brandenburg  had  good  reason  to  rejoice 
in  his  own  cautious  reluctances  on  this  occasion.  However, 
he  did  now  come  valiantly  up,  hearing  what  severities  were 
in  the  wind. 

He  pleaded  earnestly,  passionately,  he  and  Cousin  or  al- 
ready "Elector"  Moritz,-  —  who  was  just  getting  Johann 
Friedrich's  Electorship  fished  away  from  him  out  of  these 
troubles,^  —  for  Johaun  Friedrich  of  Saxony's  life,  first  of  alL 

1  Paulus  Jorius,  &c.     See  Pauli,  iii.  70-73.  *  Pauli,  iii.  102. 

8  Kurfiirst,  4th  June,  1547. 
VOL.  V.  16 


226       IIOIIEXZOLLERXS  IN  BRANDENBURG.  R-'ok  III. 

20th  June,  1547. 

For  Jolianirs  life  first ;  this  is  a  thing  not  to  be  dispensod 
with,  your  Majesty,  on  any  terms  whatever ;  a  si7ie  qua  jion, 
this  life  to  Protestant  Germany  at  large.  To  which  the 
Kaiser  indicated,  "  He  would  see  ;  not  immediate  death  at 
any  rate  ;  we  will  see."  A  life  that  could  not  and  must  not  be 
taken  in  this  manner  :  this  was  the /fn-?^  point.  Then,  sccom////, 
that  Philip  of  Ilesson,  now  home  again  at  Marburg,  —  not  a 
bad  or  disloyal  man,  though  headlong,  and  with  two  wives,  — 
might  not  be  forfeited  ;  but  that  peace  and  pardon  might  bo 
granted  him,  on  his  entire  submission.  To  which  second  ])uiiit 
the  Kaiser  answered,  "  Yes,  then,  on  his  subnussion."  These 
were  the  two  points.  These  pleadings  went  on  at  Halle, 
where  the  Kaiser  now  lies,  in  triumphantly  victorious  humor, 
in  the  early  days  of  June,  Year  1547.  Johanij  Friedrich  of 
Saxony  hi  1  been,  by  some  Imperial  Court-Council  or  other,  — 
Spanish  merely,  I  suppose,  —  doomed  to  die.  Sentence  was 
signified  to  liim  while  he  sat  at  chess:  "Can  wait  till  we  eml 
the  game,"  thought  Johann ;  —  *'  Pcrf/amus,''  said  he  to  his 
comrade,  "  Let  us  go  on,  then  !  "  Sentence  not  to  be  executed 
till  one  see. 

With  Philip  of  Hessen  things  had  a  more  conclusive  aspect. 
Philip  had  accepted  the  terms  procured  for  him  ;  which  had 
been  laboriously  negotiated,  brought  to  paper,  and  now  wanted 
only  the  sign-manual  to  them  .•  "  0/uie  elnlgm  Gefdnrjniss  (with- 
out any  imprisonment),"  oiie  of  the  chief  clauses.  And  so 
Philip  now  came  over  to  Halle;  was  met  and  welcomed  by  hi.s 
two  friends,  Joachim  and  ^loritz,  at  Naumburg,  a  stage  before 
Halle;  —  clear  now  to  make  his  submission,  and  beg  pardon  of 
the  Kaiser,  according  to  bargain.  On  the  morrow,  19th  June, 
1547,  the  Papers  were  got  signed.  And  next  day,  20th  June, 
Philip  did,  according  to  bargain,  openly  beg  pardon  of  the 
Kaiser,  in  his  Majesty's  Hall  of  Audience  (Town  House  of 
Halle,  I  suppose)  ;  "  knelt  at  the  Kaiser's  feet  publicly  on 
both  knees,  while  his  Kanzler  read  the  submission  and  en- 
treaty, as  agreed  upon ; "  and,  alas,  then  the  Kaiser  said 
nothing  at  all  to  him  !  Kaiser  looked  haughtily,  with  im- 
penetrable eyes  and  shelf-lip,  over  the  head  of  him  ;  gave  him 
no  hand  to  kiss  ;  an.l  1  ^'"t  poor  Philip   kneeling  there.     An 


I 


CiiAi-  X.  KURFUKST  JOACHIM  II.  227 

151ti-1552. 

awkward  position  imleed  ; — which  any  German  Paiuter  that 
tliere  were,  might  make  a  Picture  of,  I  have  sometimes 
thouglit.  Picture  of  souii?  real  meaning,  more  or  less,  —  if  for 
symbolic  Towers  of  liabcl,  mediaeval  mythologies,  and  exten- 
sive smearings  of  that  kind,  he  could  find  leisure !  —  Philip 
having  knelt  a  reasonable  time,  and  finding  there  was  no  help 
for  it,  rose  in  the  dread  silence  (some  say,  with  too  sturdy  an 
expression  of  countenance)  ;  and  retired  from  the  affair,  hav- 
ing at  least  done  his  part  of  it. 

The  next  practical  thing  was  now  supijer,  or  as  we  of  this 
age  should  call  it,  dinner.  Uncommonly  select  and  high  sup- 
per :  host  the  Duke  of  Alba  ;  where  Joachim,  Elector  Moritz, 
and  another  high  Official,  the  Bishop  of  Arras,  were  to  wel- 
come poor  Philip  after  his  troubles.  How  the  grand  supper 
went,  I  do  not  hear  :  possibly  a  little  constrained  ;  the  Kaiser's 
strange  silence  sitting  on  all  men's  thoughts ;  not  to  be  spoken 
of  in  the  present  company.  At  length  the  guests  rose  to  go 
awav.  Philip's  lodging  is  with  Moritz  (who  is  his  son-in-law, 
as  learned  readers  know) :  "  You  Philip,  your  lodging  is  mine  ; 
my  lodging  is  yours,  —  I  should  say !  Cannot  we  ride  to- 
gether ?  "  —  '•  J^hilip  is  not  permitted  to  go,"  said  Imperial 
Officiality ;  ''  Philip  is  to  continue  here,  and  we  fear  go  to 
prison."  —  ''  Prison  ?  "  cried  they  all :  ■"  Ohne  einigex  Gefiinrj- 
nlss  (without  amj  imprisonmeut)  !  "  —  ''As  we  read  the  words, 
it  is  '  Ohne  ewigen  Gefcingniss  (without  eternal  imprison- 
ment),'" answer  the  others.  And  so,  according  to  popular 
tradition,  which  has  little  or  no  credibility,  though  printed  in 
many  Books,  their  false  Secretary  had  actually  modified  it. 

"  No  intention  of  imprisoning  his  DurchlaucJit  of  Hessen 
forever ;  not  forever  ! "'  answered  they.  And  Kurf iirst  Joa- 
chim, in  astonished  indignation,  after  some  remonstrating  and 
arguing,  louder  and  louder,  which  profited  nothing,  blazed  out 
into  a  very  whirlwind  of  rage  ;  di-ew  his  sword,  it  is  whispered 
with  a  shudder,  — drew  his  sword,  or  was  for  drawing  it,  upon 
the  Duke  of  Alba;  and  would  have  done,  God  knows  what, 
had  not  friends  flung  themselves  between,  and  got  the  Duke 
away,  or  him  away.^  Other  accounts  bear,  that  it  was  upon 
1  Pauli,  iii.  103. 


228    THE  IIOHENZOLLERNS  IN  BRANDENBUKG.    Book  III. 

1548. 

the  Bishop  of  Arras  he  drew  his  sword  ;  which  is  a  somewhat 
different  matter.  Perhaps  he  drew  it  ou  both ;  or  on  men  and 
things  in  general ;  —  for  his  indignation  knew  no  bounds. 
The  heavy  solid  man  ;  yet  with  a  human  heart  in  him  after 
all,  and  a  Hohenzollern  abhorrence  of  chicanery,  capable  of 
rising  to  the  transcendent  pitch !  His  wars  against  the  Turks, 
and  his  other  Hectorships,  1  will  forget ;  but  tliis,  of  a  face  so 
extensive  kindled  all  into  divine  iii-e  for  poor  Philip's  sake, 
shall  be  memorable  to  me. 

Philip  got  out  by  and  by, though  with  difficulty;  the  Kaiser 
proving  very  stiff  in  the  matter ;  and  only  yielding  to  obsti- 
nate pressures,  and  the  force  of  time  and  events.  Philip  got 
away ;  and  tU«n  how  Johann  Friediich  of  Sachseu,  after  being 
led  about  for  hve  years,  in  the  Kaiser's  train,  a  condemned 
man,  liable  to  be  executed  any  day,  did  likewise  at  last  get 
away,  with  his  head  safe  and  Electorate  gone :  these  are 
known  Historical  events,  which  we  glanced  at  already,  on 
another  score. 

For,  by  and  by,  the  Kaiser  found  tougher  solicitation  than 
tliis  of  Joachim's.  The  Kaiser,  by  his  high  carriage  in  this 
and  other  such  matters,  had  at  length  kindled  a  new  War 
round  him  ;  and  he  then  soon  found  himself  reduced  to  ex- 
tremities again  ;  chased  to  the  Tyrol  Mountains,  and  obliged 
to  comply  with  many  things.  New  War,  of  quite  other  em- 
phasis and  management  than  the  Schmalkaldic  one ;  managed 
by  Elector  !Moritz  ami  our  poor  friend  Albert  Alcibiades  as 
principals.  A  Kaiser  chased  into  tlie  mountains,  capable  of 
being  seized  by  a  little  spurring;  —  ''Capture  him?"  said 
Albert.  "  I  have  no  cage  big  enough  for  such  a  bird !  "  an- 
swered Moritz ;  and  the  Kaiser  was  let  run.  How  he  ran 
then  towards  Treaty  of  Passau  (1552),  towards  Siege  of  Metz 
and  other  sad  conclusioxis,  "  Abdication  "  the  finale  of  them : 
these  also  are  known  phases  in  the  Reformation  History,  as 
hinted  at  above. 

Here  at  Halle,  in  the  year  1547,  the  great  Kaiser,  with 
Protestantism  manacled  at  his  feet,  and  many  things  going 
prosperous,  was  at  his  culminating  point.  He  published  his 
IiTterim  (1548,  V/hat  you  troublesome  Protestants  are  to  do. 


C.n.u:  X.  KURFURST  JOACHIM   IT.  229 

1548. 

ill  the  moan  time,  wliile  the  Council  of  Trent  is  sitting,  and 
till  it  and  I  decide  for  you) ;  and  in  short,  drove  and  reined-in 
the  Reich  with  a  high  hand  and  a  sharp  whip,  for  the  time 
being.  Troublesome  Protestants  mostly  rejected  the  Interim  ; 
Moritz  and  Alcibiades,  with  France  in  the  rear  of  them,  took 
to  arms  in  that  way ;  took  to  ransoming  fat  Bishoprics  ("  Ver- 
huni  DiahiUl  Md/ict,"  we  know  where!); — took  to  chasing 
Kaisers  into  the  mountains ;  —  and  times  came  soon  round 
again.  In  all  these  latter  broils  Kurfiirst  Joachim  II.,  deeply 
interested,  as  we  may  fancy,  strove  to  keep  quiet ;  and  to  ])re- 
vail,  by  weight  of  influence  and  wise  counsel,  rather  than  l)y 
lighting  with  his  Kaiser. 

One  sad  little  anecdote  I  recollect  of  Joachim :  an  Accident, 
which  happened  in  those  Passau-Interim  days,  a  year  or  two 
after  that  drawing  of  the  sword  on  Alba.  Kurfiirst  Joachim 
unfortunately  once  fell  through  a  staircase,  in  that  time  ;  being, 
as  I  guess,  a  heavy  man.  It  was  in  the  Castle  of  Grininitz, 
one  of  his  many  Castles,  a  spacious  enough  old  Hunting-seat, 
the  repairs  of  which  had  not  been  well  attended  to.  The  good 
Ilerr,  weighty  of  foot,  was  leading  down  his  Electress  to  din- 
ner one  day  in  this  Schloss  of  Grimnitz ;  broad  stair  climbs 
round  a  grand  Hall,  hung  with  stag-trophies,  groups  of  weap- 
ons, and  the  like  hall-furniture.  An  unluck}^  timber  yielded  ; 
yawning  chasm  in  the  staircase ;  Joachim  and  his  good  I'riu- 
cess  sank  by  gravitation ;  Joachim  to  the  floor  with  little 
hurt ;  his  poor  Princess  (horrible  to  think  of),  being  next  the 
wall,  came  upon  the  stag-horns  and  boar-spears  down  below  !  ^ 
The  poor  Lady's  hurt  was  indescribable  :  she  walked  lame  all 
the  rest  of  her  days  ;  and  Joachim,  I  hope  (hope,  but  not  with 
confidence),-  loved  her  all  the  better  for  it.  This  unfortunate 
old  Schloss  of  Grimnitz,  some  thirty  miles  northward  of  Ber- 
lin, was — by  the  Eighth  Kurfiirst,  Joachim  Priedrich,  Grand- 
son of  this  one,  with  great  renown  to  himself  and  to  it  — 
converted  into  an  Endowed  High  School :  the  famed  Joachims- 
thal  Gijmnasium,  still  famed,  though  now  under  some  change 
of  circumstances,  and  removed  to  Berlin  itself.^ 

Joachim's  first  Wife,  from  whom  descend  the  following 
1  Tauli,  iii.  112.  2  ib.  iii.  194.  3  Xiculai,  p.  725. 


2C0    THE  IIOIIEXZOLLERNS  IN  BKANDENBURG.    Hook  lir. 

151G-1052. 

Kurfiirsts,  was  a  daughter  of  that  Duke  George  of  Saxony, 
Luther's  celebrated  friend,  "If  it  rained  Duke-Georges  nine 
days  running." 

Joachim  gets  Co-infeftment  in  Preussen. 

This  second  Wife,  she  of  the  accident  at  Grimnitz,  was  Hed- 
wig,  King  Sigismund  of  Pohmd's  daughter  ;  which  connection, 
it  is  thought,  helped  Joachim  well  in  getting  what  they  call 
the  Mithelehnung  of  Preussen  (for  it  was  he  that  achieved  this 
point)  from  King  Sigismund. 

MitheleJinunrj  (Co-infeftment)  in  Preussen  ;  —  whereby  is  sol- 
emnly acknowledged  the  right  of  Joachim  and  his  Posterity 
to  the  reversion  of  Preussen,  should  the  Culmbach  Line  of 
Duke  Albert  happen  to  fail.  It  was  a  thing  Joachim  long 
strove  for;  till  at  length  his  Father-in-law  did,  some  twenty 
j-fars  hence,  concede  it  him.*  Should  Albert's  Line  fail,  then, 
the  other  Culmbachers  get  Preussen ;  should  the  Culmbachers 
all  fail,  the  Berlin  l>randenburgers  get  it.  The  Culmbachers  are 
at  this  time  rather  scarce  of  heirs  :  poor  Alcibiades  died  child- 
less, as  we  know,  and  Casimir's  Line  is  extinct ;  Duke  Albert 
himself  has  left  only  one  Son,  who  now  succeeds  in  Preussen  ; 
still  young,  and  not  of  the  best  omens.  ^RLargraf  George  the 
I*ious,  he  left  only  George  Friedrich;  an  excellent  man,  who 
is  now  prosperous  in  the  world,  and  wedded  long  since,  but  has 
no  children.  So  that,  between  Joachim's  Line  and  Preussen 
there  are  only  two  intermediate  heirs ;  —  and  it  was  a  thing 
eminently  worth  looking  after.  Nor  has  it  wanted  that.  And 
so  Kurfiirst  Joachim,  almost  at  the  end  of  his  course,  has  now 
made  sure  of  it. 

Joachim  makes  ^^  Heritage- Brotherhood^^  with  the  DuJce  of 

Liegnitz. 

Another  feat  of  like  nature  Joachim  II.  had  long  ago 
achieved ;  which  likewise  in  the  long-run  proved  important 
in  his  Family,  and  in  the  History  of  the  world:  an  ^^ Erhver- 

1  Date,  Lublin,  19th  Jxily,  1568:  Pauli,  iii.  177-179,  193;  Rentsch,  p.  457  ; 
Stenzel.  i.  341.  342. 


Chap.  X.  KUKFURST  JOACHIM  II.  231 

1510-1552. 

bi-uderitng,^^  so  tliey  term  it,  with  the  Duke  of  Liegnitz, — 
date  1537.  Erhverhiiderung  ("  Heritage-brotherhood,"  meaning 
Covenant  to  succeed  reciprocally  on  Failure  of  Heirs  to  either) 
-had  in  all  times  been  a  common  paction  among  German  Princes 
well  affected  to  each  other.  Friedrich  II.,  the  then  Duke  of 
Liegnitz,  we  have  transiently  seen,  was  related  to  the  Family ; 
he  had  been  extremely  helpful  in  bringing  his  young  friend, 
Albert  of  Preussen's  affairs  to  a  good  issue,  —  whose  Niece,^ 
witjial,  he  had  wedded :  —  in  fact,  he  was  a  close  friend  of  this 
our  Joachim's ;  and  there  had  long  been  a  growing  connection 
between  the  two  Houses,  by  intermarriages  and  good  offices. 

The  Dukes  of  Liegnitz  were  Sovereign-Princes,  come  of  the 
old  Piasts  of  Poland  ;  and  had  perfect  right  to  enter  into  this 
transaction  of  an  Erbverbrudenuuj  with  whom  they  liked.  True, 
they  had,  above  two  hundred  years  before,  in  the  days  of  King 
Johann  Ich-dien  (a.d.  1329),  voluntarily  constituted  them- 
selves VasSvals  of  the  Crown  of  Bohemia :  ^  but  the  right  to 
djsjjose  of  their  Lands  as  they  pleased  had,  all  along,  been 
carefully  a'^knowledged,  and  saved  entire.  And,  so  late  as 
1521,  just  sixteen  years  ago,  the  Bohemian  King  Vladislaus 
the  Last,  our  good  Margraf  George's  friend,  had  expressly,  in 
a  Deed  still  extant,  confirmed  to  them,  with  all  the  emphasis 
and  amplitude  that  Law-Phraseology  could  bring  to  bear  upon 
it,  the  right  to  dispose  of  said  Lands  in  any  manner  of  way : 
"  by  written  testament,  or  by  verbal  on  their  death-bed,  they 
can,  as  they  see  wisest,  give  away,  sell,  pawn,  dispose  of,  and 
exchange  (^vergehen,  verkaufen,  versetzen,  verschaffen,  verv)ech- 
seln)  these  said  lands,"  to  all  lengths,  and  with  all  manner  of 
freedom.  Which  privilege  had  likewise  been  confirmed,  twice 
over  (1522,  1524),  by  Ludwig  the  next  King,  Ludwig  Ohne- 
Hinit,  who  perished  in  the  bogs  of  Mohacz,  and  ended  the  native 
Line  of  Bohemian -Hungarian  livings.  Nay,  Ferdinand,  King 
of  the  Eomans,  Karl  V.'s  Brother,  afterwards  Kaiser,  who 
absorbed  that  Bohemian  Crown  among  the  others,  had  himself, 
by  implication,  sanctioned  or  admitted  the  privilege,  in  1529, 
only  eight  years  ago.^  The  right  to  make  the  Erbverbruderung 
could  not  seem  doubtful  to  anybody. 

1  Fauli,  ii:.  22.  2  Stenzel,  i.  323. 


232         IIOIIENZOLLERXS  IN   r.lIANDKXnrRG.  Book  III. 

18tli  Oct.  1537 

And  made  accordingly  it  was  ;  signctl,  scaled,  drawn  out  on 
the  proper  parchments,  iSth  October,  lo'Al ;  to  the  following 
clear  effect  :  "  That  if  Duke  Friedrich's  Line  should  die  out, 
all  his  Liegnitz  countries,  Liegnitz,  Brieg,  AVolilau,  should  fall 
to  the  Ilohenzollcrn  Brandenburgers  ;  and  that,  if  the  Line  of 
HohenzoUern  Brandenburg  should  first  fail,  then  all  and  singu- 
lar the  Bohemian  Fiefs  of  Brandenburg  (as  Crossen,  Ziilliphau 
and  seven  others  there  enumerated)  should  fall  to  the  House 
of  Liegnitz."  '  It  seemed  a  clear  Paction,  questionable  by  no 
mortal.  Double-marriage  between  the  two  Houses  (eldest  Son, 
on  each  side,  to  suitable  Princess  on  the  other)  was  to  follow ; 
and  did  follow,  after  some  delays,  17th  February,  1545.  So 
that  the  matter  seemed  now  complete ;  secure  on  all  points, 
and  a  matter  of  quiet  satisfaction  to  both  the 'Houses  aod  to 
their  friends. 

But  Ferdinand,  King  of  the  Romans,  King  of  Bohemia  and 
Hungary,  and  coming  to  be  Emperor  one  day,  was  not  of  that 
sentiment.  Ferdinand  had  once  imjdicitly  recognized  the 
privilege,  but  Ferdinand,  now  when  he  saw  the  privilege 
turned  to  use,  and  such  a  territory  as  Liegnitz  exposed  to  the 
possibility  of  falling  into  inconvenient  hands,  explicitly  took 
other  thoughts  ;  and  gradually  determined  to  prohibit  this 
Erlrcerhriiderting.  The  States  of  Bohemia,  accordingly,  in 
1544  (it  is  not  doubtful,  by  Ferdinand's  suggestion),  were 
moved  to  make  inquiries  as  to  this  Heritage-Fraternity  of 
Liegnitz.'^  On  which  hint  King  Ferdinand  straightway  in- 
formed the  Duke  of  Liegnitz  that  the  act  was  not  justifiable, 
and  must  be  revoked.  The  Duke  of  Liegnitz,  grieved  to  the 
heart,  had  no  means  of  resisting.  Ferdinand,  King  of  the 
Romans,  backed  by  Kaiser  Karl,  with  the  States  of  Bohemia 
barking  at  his  Avink,  were  too  strong  for  poor  Duke  Friedrich 
of  Liegnitz.  Great  corresponding  between  Berlin,  Liegnitz, 
Prag  ensued  on  this  matter :  but  the  end  was  a  summons  to 
Duke  Friedrich,  —  summons  from  King  Ferdinand  in  March, 
1546,  "  To  appear  in  the  Imperial  Hall  {Kaiserhof)  at  Bres- 
lau,"  and  to  submit  that  Deed  of  Erhcerhriklcriing  to  the  ex- 
amination of  the  States  there.  The  States,  already  up  to  the 
1  Stenzel,  i.  320.  2  ib.  i.  322. 


Chap.  X.  KURFURST  JOACHIM   II.  23E 

8th  May,  1546. 

affair,  soou  finished  their  examination  of  it  (Stli  May,  1546). 
The  deed  was  annihilated ;  and  Friedi-ich  was  ordered,  further- 
more, to  produce  proofs  within  six  months  that  his  subjects 
too  were  absolved  of  all  oaths  or  the  like  regarding  it,  and  that 
in  fact  the  Transaction  was  entirely  abolished  and  reduced 
to  zero.  Fried  rich  complied,  had  to  comply;  very  much  cha- 
grined, he  returned  lionie ;  and  died  next  year,  —  it  is  sup- 
per ed,  of  heartbreak  from  this  business.  He  had  yielded  out 
wanlly ;  but  to  force  only.  In  a  Codicil  appended  to  his  last 
Will,  some  months  afterwards  (which  Will,  written  years  ago, 
had  treated  the  Erlircrlrriidtnituj  as  a  Fact  settled),  he  indi- 
cates, as  with  his  last  breath,  that  he  considered  the  thing  still 
valid,  though  overruled  by  the  hand  of  power.  Let  the  reader 
mark  this  matter ;  for  it  will  assuredly  become  memorable, 
one  day. 

The  hand  of  power,  namely,  Ferdinand,  King  of  the  Romans, 
had  applied  in  like  manner  to  Joachim  of  Brandenburg  to  sur- 
render his  portion  of  the  Deed,  and  annihilate  on  his  side  too 
this  Erbverhruderung.  But  Joachim  refused  steadily,  and  all 
his  successors  steadily,  to  give  up  this  Bit  of  AVritten  I'arch- 
ment ;  kept  the  same,  among  their  precious  documents,  against 
some  day  that  might  come  (and  I  suppose  it  lies  in  the  Ar- 
chives of  Berlin  even  now)  ;  silently,  or  in  words,  asserting 
that  the  Deed  of  Heritage-Brothership  was  good,  and  that 
thovigh  some  hands  might  have  the  power,  no  hand  could  have 
the  right  to  abolish  it  on  those  terms. 

How  King  Ferdinand  permitted  himself  such  a  procedure  ? 
Ferdinand,  says  one  of  his  latest  apologists  in  this  matter, 
"  considered  the  privileges  granted  by  his  Predecessors,  in 
respect  to  rights  of  Sovereignty,  as  fallen  extinct  on  their 
death."  ^  Which  —  if  Eeality  and  Fact  would  but  likewise  be 
so  kind  as  "  consider "  it  so  —  was  no  doubt  convenient  for 
Ferdinand ! 

Joachim  was  not  so  great  with  Ferdinand  as  he  had  been 

with  Charles  the  Imperial  Brother.     Joachim  and  Ferdinand 

had  many  debates  of  this  kind,   some  of  them  rather  stiff. 

Jagerndorf,  for  instance,  and  the  Baireuth-Anspach  confisca- 

1  Stenzel,  i.  323. 


234    THE   IKUIKNZOLLEUNS  IN  BiLVNDENHUKG.    Bo. .k  III. 

151C-15o2- 

tions,  in  George'  FrieJrich's  minority.  Ferdinand,  now  KaistT, 
hatl  snatched  Jai,'erndoif  from  poor  young  George  Friedrieli, 
son  of  excellent  Margraf  George  whom  we  knew  ;  "  Part  of 
the  spoils  of  Albert  Aleibiades,"  thought  Ferdinand,  "  and  a 
good  windfall,"  —  thoujfh  young  George  Friedrich  had  merely 
been  the  Ward  of  Cousin  Aleibiades,  and  totally  without  con- 
cern in  those  political  explosions.  "  Excellent  windfall,"' 
thought  Ferdinand  ;  and  held  his  grip.  But  Joa<him,  in  his 
weighty  steady  way,  intervened ;  Joiwhim,  emphatic  in  the 
Diets  and  elsewhere,  nuide  Ferdinand  (juit  grip,  and  produce 
Jiigerndorf  again.  Jiigerndorf  and  the  rest  had  all  to  be 
restored  ;  and,  except  some  tilchings  in  the  Jiigerndorf  Appen- 
dages (Ratibor  and  Oppeln,  '*  restored  "  only  in  semblance,  and 
at  length  juggled  away  altogether),'  everythirtg  came  to  lis 
right  owner  again.  Nor  would  Joachim  rest  till  Alcibiatles's 
Territories  too  were  all  punctually  given  batik,  to  this  same 
George  Friedrich  ;  to  whom,  by  law  and  justice,  they  l)elonged. 
In  the.se  jM)ints  Joachim  prevailed  against  a  strong-handtil 
Kaiser,  apt  to  "  consider  one's  rights  fallen  extinct "  now  and 
then.  In  this  of  Liegnitz  all  he  could  do  was  to  keep  the 
Deed,  in  steaily  protest  silent  or  vocal. 

l>ut  enough  now  of  Joachim  Hector,  Sixth  Kurfiirst,  and  of 
his  workings  and  his  strugglings.  He  walked  through  this 
world,  treading  as  softly  as  might  be,  yet  with  a  strong 
weighty  step ;  rending  the  jungle  steadily  asunder ;  well  see- 
ing whither  he  was  bound.  Rather  an  expensive  Herr ;  built 
a  good  deal,  completion  of  the  Schloss  at  Berlin  one  exam- 
ple ;  ^  and  was  not  otherwise  afraid  of  outlay,  in  the  Reich's 
Politics,  or  in  what  seemed  needful :  If  there  is  a  harvest 
ahead,  even  a  distant  one,  it  is  poor  thrift  to  be  stingy  of 
your  seed-corn  I 

Joachim  was  always  a  conspicuous  Public  ^lan,  a  busy  Poli- 
tician in  the  Reich ;  stanch  to  his  kindred,  and  by  no  means 
blind  to  himself  or  his  own  interests.  Stanch  also,  we  must 
grant,  and  ever  active,  thoui^h  generally  in  a  cautious,  weighty, 
never  in  a  rash  swift  way.  to  the  great  Cause  of  Protestantism, 
1  Rentsch,  pp.  12'.i.  130.  2  Xicolai,  p.  82. 


Chai-.  X.  KUKFi'K.^T    JUACIII.M    11.  235 

1510-1552. 

aiul  to  all  good  causes.  He  was  himself  a  solemnly  tlevout 
man;  deep  awe-stricken  reverence  dwelling  in  bis  view  of  this 
Universe.  Most  serious,  though  with  a  jocose  dialect  com- 
.  monly,  having  a  cheerful  wit  in  speaking  to  men.  Luther's 
Ikiuks  he  called  his  Seelejischatz  (Soul's-treasure)  ;  Luther  and 
the  r.ible  were  his  chief  reading.  Fond  of  profane  learning 
too,  and  of  the  useful  or  ornamental  Arts ;  given  to  music, 
and  "  would  himself  sing  aloud "  when  he  had  a  melodious 
h'i^ure-hour.  Excellent  old  gentleman  :  he  died,  rather  sud- 
denly, but  with  much  nobleness,  3d  January,  1571 ;  age  sixty- 
six.  Old  Kentsch's  account  of  this  event  is  still  worth 
reading:*  Joachim's  death-scene  has  a  mild  i)ious  beauty 
which  does  not  depend  on  creed. 

He  had  a  l>rother  too,  not  a  little  occujiied  with  Politics, 
and  always  on  the  gooil  side ;  a  wise  pious  man,  whose  lame 
w;iiS  in  all  the  churches:  "Johann  of  Ciistrin,"  called  also 
"Johann  tlw  Wise,''  wlio  busied  himself  zealously  in  Protes- 
tant matters,  second  only  in  jiiety  and  zeal  to  his  Cousin, 
Margraf  George  the  Pious ;  and  was  not  so  held  back  by 
olUeial  considerations  as  his  Prother  the  Elector  now  and 
then.  Johann  of  Ciistrin  is  a  very  famous  man  in  the  old 
liooks  ;  Johann  was  the  fii'st  that  fortified  Ciistrin  ;  built  him- 
self an  ijlustrious  Schloss,  and  ''roofed  it  with  copper,"  in 
Ciistrin  (which  is  a  place  we  shall  be  well  acquainted  with  by 
and  by) ;  and  lived  there,  with  the  Neumark  for  apanage,  a 
true  man's  life;  —  mostly  with  a  good  deal  of  business,  war- 
like and  other,  on  his  hands ;  with  good  Books,  good  Deeds, 
and  occasionally  good  Men,  coming  to  enliven  it,  —  according 
to  the  terms  then  given. 

1  Rentsch,  p.  458. 


236    Till::  IIUIIENZULLEUNS  IN   BKANDENBUKG.    I^^-k  m 

1047. 


C'llAl'IKK    XI. 

SEVENTH    KUUFlKsr,    JdllA.W    OEOUfJK. 

Kaiseu  Kaki.,  we  saiil,  was  very  good  to  Joachim;  wlio 
always  struvi-,  soiiu'timfs  with  a  strftcli  upon  his  very  con- 
science, to  keel)  well  with  the  Kaiser.  The  Kaist-r  took 
Joachim's  young  I'rince  along  with  him  to  those  Schmalkal- 
tlic  Wars  (not  the  comfortable  side  for  Joiu'him's  conscience, 
but  the  safe  side  for  an  anxious  Father^ ;  Kaiser  maile  a 
Knight  of  this  young  Prince,  on  one  occasion  of  distiuetion ; 
he  wrote  often  to  Papa  about  him,  what  a  promising  young 
htTo  he  was, — seems  really  to  have  liked  the  young  man. 
It  w;is  Johann  George,  Elector  afterwaids,  Seventh  Elector.  — 
This  little  incident  is  known  to  me  on  evidence.*  A  small 
thing  that  eerUiinly  befell,  at  the  siege  of  Wittenberg 
(a. I).  1547),  during  those  Philii>-of-I lessen  Negotiations,  three 
hundred  and  oild  years  ago. 

The  Si-hmalkaUlie  War  having  come  all  to  nothing,  the 
Saxon  Elector  sitting  captive  with  sword  overhead  in  the 
way  we  saw,  Saxon  Wittenberg  was  besiegetl,  and  the  Kaiser 
was  in  great  hurry  to  get  it.  Kaiser  in  person,  aud  young 
Johann  George  for  .sole  attendant,  rotle  round  the  place  one 
(lay.  to  take  a  view  of  the  works,  and  judge  how  soon,  or 
whether  ever,  it  could  be  conjpelled  to  give  in.  Gunners 
noticed  tliem  from  the  battlements ;  gunners  Saxon-Protes- 
tant most  likely,  and  in  just  gloom  at  the  perils  and  indigni- 
ties now  lying  on  their  pious  Kurfui-st  Johann  Friedrich  the 
^Magnanimous.  '*  Lo,  you !  Kaiser's  self  riding  yonder,  and 
one  of  his  silk  Junkers.  Suppose  we  gave  the  Kaiser's  self 
a  shot,  then?"  said  the  gunner,  or  thought:  "It  might  help 
a  better  man  from  his  life-perils,  if  such  shot  did  —  I"  In 
fact  the  gun  flashed  off,  with  due  outburst,  and  almost  with 
due  effect.  The  ball  struck  the  ground  among  the  very  horses' 
-  Reutsch,  p.  465. 


Chai'.  XI.      SEVENTH    KIKFLKST,   JoIlANN    CKoliCiE.    237 

IJUS-IGUJ. 

feet  o!  the  two  riders  ;  so  that  they  were  thrown,  or  nearly  so, 
aucl  covered  iroiu  si^dit  witli  a  cloud  of  earth  and  saud  ;  — and 
the  gunners  thought,  for  some  instants,  an  uujust,  obstinate 
Ivaiser's  life  was  gone  ;  aud  a  pious  Elector's  saved.  But  it 
proved  not  so.  Kaiser  Karl  and  Johann  George  both  oniergeil, 
in  a  minute  or  two,  little  the  worse; — Kaiser  Karl  jjerhaps 
blushing  somewhat,  an  1  flurried  this  tiuie,  I  think,  in  tha 
imiH'netnible  eyes;  aui  his  CiuiburLji.s  li[)  closed  for  the  mo- 
ment;—  anil  galloj)od  out  of  shut-range.  "I  never  forget 
this'little  incideut,"  exclaima  Sniel fungus  :  '*  It  is  one  of  the 
few  times  I  can  get,  after  all  my  reading  about  that  surprising 
Karl  v.,  1  ilo  not  say  the  least  understanding  or  praetieal  con- 
ception of  him  and  his  eharacter  and  his  affairs,  but  the  least 
oeidar  view  or  imagination  of  him,  a.s  a  f;utt  among  facts  !  " 
Which  is  unlucky  for  Smelfungus.  —  Johann  (ii'orge,  still 
more  emphatically,  never  to  the  end  of  his  life  forgot  this 
incident.  And  indeed  it  must  be  owned,  had  the  shot  taken 
ctTect  ;us  intended,  the  whole  course  of  liuiuan  things  would 
have  been  surprisiugly  altered ; — and  for  one  thing,  neither 
Frlcdr'uh  the  Great,  nor  the  present  IHsturtj  of  Frifdrich,  had 
ever  risen  above  grountl,  or  troubled  au  enlightened  public 
or  me ! 

Of  Johann  Gi^rge,  tliis  Seventh  Elector,*  who  prcjved  a  good 
Governor,  and  carried  on  the  Family  Affairs  in  the  old  style 
of  slow  steady  success,  I  will  remember  nothing  more,  except 
that  he  had  the  surju-ising  number  of  Three-aud-Twenty  chil- 
dren ;  one  of  tliem  posthumous,  though  he  died  at  the  age  of 
seventy-three.  — 

lie  is  Founder  of  the  Xew  Culmbach  line  :  two  sons  of 
these  twenty-three  children  he  settled,  one  in  Baireuth,  the 
other  in  Anspach ;  from  whom  come  all  the  subsequent  Heads 
of  that  Principality,  till  the  last  of  them  died  in  Hammer- 
smith in  1806,  as  above  said.*  He  was  a  prudent,  thrifty 
Herr ;  no  mistresses,  no  luxuries  allowed ;  at  the  sight  of  a 

1   1523;  1571-1598. 

*  Rentsch,  p.  475  (ChrisiUin  to  Bairenth ;  Joacfiiin  Ernst  to  Anspach);  — 
see  Genealogical  Diagram,  iufra,  p   309a. 


238    THE  lIUlIENZuLLKliNS   IN    liKAXDKNlU'KG.    "-"'"  MI. 

iJtiS-lGtKi. 

new-fusliioned  coat,  he  would  fly  out  on  an  unhapjiy  youth, 
and  pack  him  from  his  presence.  Very  rtriot  in  })oint  of  jus- 
tice :  a  peasant  oiice  appealinjj  to  him,  in  one  of  his  inspec- 
tion-journeys through  the  country,  "  Gnint  me  justice,  Durrh- 
laucJtt,  against  So-and-so  ;  I  am  your  highuess's  born  subject ! " 
—  ''  Thou  shouUlst  have  it,  man,  WL^rt  thou  a  born  Turk  !  "  au- 
sweri'd  Johann  George.  —  There  is  something  anxious,  gi-ave 
and,  as  it  were,  surprised  in  tlie  look  of  this  good  Herr.  He 
mailo  the  Gem  liinul  above  spoken  of;  —  founded  the  Younger 
Culmbach  Line,  with  that  important  Law  of  Primogeniture 
strictly  sujjeradded.  A  conspicuous  thrift,  veracity,  modest 
solidity,  looks  through  the  conduct  of  this  llerr; — a  deter- 
mined i'rotestaut  he  too,  as  indeed  all  the  following  w'ere  and 
are.^ 

Of  Joachim  Friedrich,  his  eldest  Son,  who  at  one  tinu'  was 
Archbishop  of  Magdeburg,  —  called  home  from  the  wars  to 
till  that  valuable  Heirloom,  which  had  suddenly  fallen  vacant 
by  an  Uncle's  death,  and  keeji  it  warm  ;  —  and  who  afterwards, 
in  due  course,  carried  on  a  /uhfir/ie  lieijierunrj  of  the  old  style 
and  physiognomy,  as  Eighth  Kurfiirst,  from  his  fiftietli  to  his 
sixtietii  year  (15*.)S-1G()S) :  -of  him  we  already  noticed  the  line 
♦' e/ortcA* ww-thal  Gymnasium,"  or  Foundation  for  learned  pur- 
poses, in  the  old  Sehloss  of  Grimnitz,  where  his  serene  Grand- 
mother got  lamed ;  and  will  notice  nothing  farther,  in  this 
place,  except  his  very  great  anxiety  to  profit  l)y  the  I'russian 
Mithdehnunfj, — that  Co-infeftment  in  Freussen,  achieved  by 
his  Grandfather  Joachim  IL,  which  was  now  about  coming  to 
its  full  mattirity.  Joachim  Friedrich  had  already  married  his 
eldest  Prince  to  the  daughter  of  Albert  Friedrich,  Second 
Duke  of  Preussen,  who  it  was  by  this  time  evident  would  be 
the  last  Duke  there  of  his  Line.  Joachim  Friedrich,  having 
himself  fallen  a  widower,  did  next  year,  though  now  counting 
lifty-six  —  But  it  will  be  better  if  we  explain  first,  a  little, 
how  matters  now  stood  with  Preussen. 

1  Rentsch,  pp.  470,  471. 

-  Born,  1547;  Magdeburg,  1566-1598  (when  his  Third  Son  got  it,  —  very 
unlucky  in  the  Thirty- Years  War  afterwards). 


(MAI-.  XU.  ALBERT   FKIEDRICH.  239 

15iJ8. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

OF    ALBERT    FUIEDKU'H,    THE    SECOND    DUKE    OF    PREUSSEN. 

• 

Duke  Alueut  died  in  15G8,  laden  witli  years,  and  in  his 
latter  time  greatly  broken  down  by  other  troubles.  His 
Prussian  RatJis  (Councillors)  were  disobedient,  his  Osianders 
and  Lutheran-Calvinist  Theologians  were  all  in  lire  and 
flame  against  eaeh  other:  the  poor  old  man,  with  the  best 
dispositions,  but  without  power  to  realize  them,  had  much 
to  do  and  to  suffer.  Pious,  just  and  honorable,  intending 
the  best  ;  but  losing  his  memory,  and  ineapable  of  business, 
as  lie  now  complained.  In  his  sixtieth  year  he  had  married 
a-  second  time,  a  young  I>runs\vick  Princess,  with  whose 
foolish  Brother,  Eric,  he  had  much  trouble ;  and  who  at  last 
herself  took  so  ill  with  the  insolence  and  violence  of  these 
intrusive  CiAUuillors  and  Theologians,  that  the  household- 
life  alie  led  beside  her  old  Husband  and  them  became  intoler- 
able to  her ;  and  she  withdrew  to  another  residence,  —  a 
little  Hunting-seat  at  Neuhausen,  half  a  dozen  miles  from 
Konigsberg; — and  there,  or  at  Labiau  still  farther  off,  lived 
mostly,  in  a  separate  condition,  for  the  rest  of  her  life.  Sepa- 
rate for  life:  —  nevertheless  they  happened  to  die  on  the 
same  day ;  20th  ^Mareh,  1508,  they  were  simultaneously  de 
livered  from  their  troubles  in  this  world.* 

Albert  left  one  Son ;  the  second  child  of  this  last  Wife  : 
his  one  child  by  the  former  Wife,  a  daughter  now  of  good 
years,  was  married  to  the  Duke  of  Mecklenburg.  Son's  name 
was  Albert  Friedrich ;  age,  at  his  Father's  death,  fifteen. 
A  promising  young  Prince,  but  of  sensitive  abstruse  temper ; 
—  held  under  heavy  tutelage  by  his  Raths  and  Theologians; 
and  spurting  up  against  them,  in  explosive  rebellion,  from 
time  to  time.  He  now  (1568)  was  to  be  sovereign  Duke  of 
1  Hiibuer.  t.  181 ;  Stenzel.  i.  342. 


240    THE  liUllENZULLEKNS  IN   lUiANDENBUKG.    i^-K  IH. 

Prenssen,  and  the  one  representative  of  the  Culmbatli  Lino 
in  that  fine  Territory  ;  Maigraf  George  Friedrich  of  Auspiu  li, 
the  only  otlxt*r  Cuhubat-her,  bv.*iug  tliilukss,  though  weddid. 

We  need  not  doubt,  the  I^nindeidmrj;  IIduso  —  old  Kur- 
fiirst  Joachim  11.  still  alive,  and  thrifty  Joluinu  George  the 
Ili'ir-A|)i»ari'iit — kept  a  watchful  eye  on  those  eniergiMicies. 
Hut  it  \v;us  dillicult  to  interfere  directly  ;  the  native  I'russian 
liaths  were  very  je;ilous,  and  I'olanc^  itsv.lf  was  a  tii'klish 
Sovereignty  to  deal  with.  Albert  Friedrich  beini^  still  a 
Minor,  the  I'olish  King,  Sigi;;nuind,  proposed  to  undi-rtakc 
the  guardianship  of  him,  as  became  a  superior  lord  to  a 
subject  v;ussal  on  such  an  occasion.  Cut  the  Prussian  Kaths 
assured  his  Majesty,  "Their  young  I'rince  was  of  such  a 
lively  intellect,  he  was  perfectly  lit  to  condnct  the  affairs 
of  the  Government,"  especially  with  such  a  Uody  of  expert 
Councillors  to  helj)  him,  "and  might  be  at  once  declared  of 
age."  Which  was  accordingly  the  course  followed;  Poland 
earing  little  for  it;  Brandenburg  digesting  the  arrangement 
as  it  could.  And  thus  it  continued  for  some  years,  even 
under  new  difficulties  that  arose ;  the  official  Clique  of  Ilaths 
being  the  real  Government  of  the  Country ;  and  poor  young 
AllKTt  Friedrich  bursting  out  owasionally  into  tears  against 
them,  occ^isionally  into  futile  humors  of  a  fiery  nature. 
Osiander-Theologj',  and  the  battle  of  the  \loxiejt,  ran  very 
high  ;  nor  was  Prussian  Officiality  a  beautiful  thing. 

These  Pnissian  Raths,  and  the  Prussian  liitUrschafl  gen- 
erally (Knightatre.  Land-Aristocracy),  which  had  its  Stdnde 
(States,  or  meetings  of  Parliament  after  a  sort),  were  all 
along  of  a  mutinous,  contiunacious  humor.  The  idea  had 
got  into  their  minds.  That  they  were  by  birth  wliat  the 
ancient  Hitters  by  election  hatl  been;  entitled,  tit  or  not  fit, 
to  share  the  Grovernraent  ]>romotions  among  them :  "  The 
Duke  is  hereditary  in  his  office ;  why  not  we  ?  All  Offices, 
are  they  not,  by  nature,  ours  to  share  among  us?"  The 
Duke's  notion,  again,  was  to  have  the  work  of  his  Offices 
effectually  done ;  small  matter  by  whom :  the  Ritters  looked 
less  to  that  side  of  the  question  ;  —  regarded  any  "  Foreigner  " 
(German-Anspacher,  or    other    Non-Prussian),   whatever    his 


<  "Af.  \ll.  ALBLKT   FlilEDlilCll.  241 

merit,  as  an  intruder,  usurper,  or  kind  ul  ihk-i,  wlu  n  sl-i'u 
in  utlifo.  Tliuir  contentions,  contumacies  and  juvtcnsiuns 
were  accordingly  manifold.  They  had  dreams  of  an  "  Aris 
tocratic  Kepublic,  with  tlie  Sovereign  reduced  to  zero,"  like 
what  their  Polish  neighbors  grew  to.  They  had  various 
dreams  J  and  individuals  among  them  broke  out,  from  time 
to  time,  into  high  acts  of  insolence  and  mutiny.  It  took  a 
hundred  and  titty  years  of  lirandenburg  horse-breaking,  some- 
times with  sharp  manipulation  and  a  potent  curb-bit,  t«) 
dispossess  them  of  that  notion,  and  make  them  go  steadily  in 
harness.  Which  also,  however,  wa^  at  last  got  done  by  the 
llohenzollerns. 

Of  Duke  Albert  Friedrich'x  MaiT'ui;ie  :  who  his  Wife  era«, 
(in<f  u'hiif  h>  r  jiongiUe  Dowry. 

In  a  year  or  two,  there  came  to  be  (piestiou  of  the  marrying 
of  young  Duke  Albert  Friedrich.  After  due  consultation,  the 
i'riucess  fixed  u[)OU  was  ^lai-ia  Eleouora,  eldest  Daughter  of 
the  then  Duke  of  Cleve :  to  him  a  propi-r  Embassy  wiis  sent 
with  that  object;  and  came  back  with  Ves  for  answer. 
Duke  of  Cleve,  at  that  time,  w;is  Wilhelm,  called  "  the  llich  " 
in  II istory -Books ;  a  Sovfreign  of  some  extent  in  those  lower 
Khine  countries.  Whom  I  can  connect  with  the  Englisli 
reader's  memory  in  uo  readier  way  than  by  the  fact,  That  he 
was  younger  brother,  one  year  younger,  of  a  certain  "  Anne 
of  Cleves  ;  "  —  a  large  fat  Lady,  who  was  rather  scurvily  used 
in  this  country ;  being  called,  by  Henry  VIII.  and  us,  a  "  great 
Flanders  mare,"  unsuitable  for  es]>ousal  with  a  King  of  deli- 
cate feelings  I  This  Anne  of  Cleves,  who  took  matters  quietly 
and  lived  on  her  pension,  when  rejected  by  King  Henry,  was 
Aunt  of  the  young  Lady  now  in  question  for  Preussen.  She 
was  still  alive  here  in  England,  pleasantly  quiet,  "  at  Burley 
on  the  Hill,"  till  Maria  Eleonora  was  seven  years  old ;  —  who 
possibly  enough  still  reads  in  her  memory  some  fading 
vestige  of  new  black  frocks  or  trimmings,  and  brief  court- 
mourning,  on  the  death  of  poor  Aunt  Anne  over  seas. — 
Anotlier  Aunt  is  more  honorably  distinguished ;  Sibylla,  Wife 

VOL.    V.  16 


242    THE  IIOHENZOLLERNS  IN   BRAxNDENBUKG.  Book  in. 

1508-100.). 

of  our  noble  Saxon  Elootor,  Joliann  Friedncli  the  Magnani- 
mous, who  lost  his  Electorate  and  almost  his  Life  for  religion's 
sake,  as  we  have  seen  ;  by  whom,  in  his  perils  and  distresses, 
Sibylla  stood  always,  like  a  very  true  and  noble  Wife. 

Duke  Wilhelm  himself  was  a  man  of  considerable  mark 
in  his  day.  Ilis  Duchy  of  Cleve  included  not  only  Cleve- 
Proper,  but  Jiilioh  (Jii/icrs).  Berg,  which  latter  pair  of  Duchies 
were  a  better  thing  than  Cleve-Proper :  —  Jiilicli,  Ik-rg  and 
various  other  small  Principalities,  which,  gradually  agglomer- 
ating by  marriage,  heritage  and  the  chance  of  events  in  succes- 
sive centuries,  had  at  length  come  all  into  Wllheliu's  hands ; 
so  that  he  got  the  name  of  Wilhelm  the  Rich  among  his  con- 
temporaries, lie  seems  to  have  been  of  a  headlong,  blustery, 
uncertain  disposition ;  nuuh  tossed  alx)ut  in  the  controversies 
of  his  day.  At  one  time  he  was  a  Protestant  declared;  not 
without  reasons  of  various  kinds.  The  Duchy  of  Geldern 
(what  we  call  Giuhlrrs)  hail  fallen  to  him,  by  exj)ress  be- 
quest of  the  last  Owner,  wliose  Line  was  out;  and  Wilhelm 
took  possession.  Put  the  Kaiser  Karl  V.  quite  refused  to  let 
him  keep  possession.  Whereui)on  Williclm  had  joined  witli 
the  French  (it  was  in  the  Moritz-Alcibiades  time);  had  de- 
clared war,  and  taken  other  high  measures :  but  it  came  to 
nothing,  or  to  less.  Tlie  end  was,  Wilhelm  had  to  "  come 
upon  his  knees  "  before  the  Kaiser,  and  beg  forgiveness ;  quite 
renouncing  Geldern,  which  accordingly  has  gone  its  own  dif- 
ferent road  ever  since.  Wilhelm  was  zealously  Protestant  in 
those  days  ;  as  his  people  are,  and  as  he  still  is,  at  the  period 
we  treat  of.  But  he  went  into  Papistry,  not  long  after ;  and 
made  other  sudden  turns  and  misventures  :  to  all  appearance, 
rather  an  abrupt,  blustery,  unceitain  Herr.  It  is  to  him  that 
Albert  Friedrich,  the  young  Duke  of  Preussen,  guided  by  his 
Council,  now  (Year  1572)  sends  an  Embassy,  demanding  his 
eldest  Daughter,  ^laria  Eleonora,  to  wife. 

Duke  Wilhelm  answered  Yea ;  "  sent  a  Counter-Embassy," 
with  whatever  else  was  necessary ;  and  in  due  time  the  young 
Bride,  with  her  Father,  set  out  towards  Preussen,  such  being 
the    arrangement,  there  to   complete  the  matter.     They  had 


CiiAi-.  XII.  ALEEKT   FKIEDllICH.  248 

15.J8-1U03. 

gut  as  far  as  Berlin,  warmly  welcomed  by  the  Kurfiirst  Jo- 
liann  George ;  when,  from  Kcinigsberg,  a  sad  message  reached 
them  :  namely,  that  the  young  Duke  had  suddenly  been  seized 
with  an  invincible  dej^ression  and  overclouding  of  mind,  not 
quite  to  be  characterized  by  the  name  of  madness,  but  still 
less  by  that  of  perfect  sanity.  His  eagerness  to  see  his  Bride 
was  the  same  as  formerly  ;  but  his  spiritual  health  was  in  the 
questionable  state  described.  The  young  Lady  paused  for  a 
little,  in  such  mood  as  we  may  fancy.  She  had  already  lost 
two  oilers.  Bridegrooms  snatched  away  by  death,  says  l*auli ;  ^ 
and  thought  it  might  be  ominous  to  refuse  the  third.  So  she 
decided  to  go  on  ;  dashed  aside  her  father's  doubts  ;  sent  her 
unhealthy  Bridegroom  "  a  flower-garland  as  love-token,"  who 
duly  responded ;  and  Father  Wilhelm  and  she  proceeded,  as 
if  nothing  were  wrong.  The  spiritual  state  of  the  Prince,  she 
found,  had  not  been  exaggerated  to  her.  His  humors  and 
ways  were  strange,  questionable ;  other  than  one  could  have 
wished.  Such  as  he  was,  however,  she  wedded  him  on  the 
api)ointed  terms  ;  —  hoping  probably  for  a  recovery,  which 
never  came. 

The  case  of  Albert's  nialaly  is  to  this  day  dim  ;  and 
strange  tales  are  current  as  to  the  origin  of  it,  which  the 
curious  in  Physiology  may  consult ;  they  are  not  fit  for  re- 
porting here.-*  It  seems  to  have  consisted  in  an  overclouding, 
rather  than  a  total  ruin  of  the  mind.  Incurable  dejiression 
there  was ;  gloomy  torpor  alternating  with  fits  of  vehement 
activity  or  suffering  ;  great  discontinuity  at  all  times :  —  evi- 
dent unfitness  for  business.  It  was  long  hoped  he  might 
recover.  And  Doctors  in  Divinity  and  in  Medicine  undertook 
him :  Theologians,  Exorcists,  Physicians,  Quacks  ;  but  no 
cure  came  of  it,  nothing  but  mutual  condemnations,  violences 
and  even  execrations,  from  the  said  Doctors  and  their  re- 
spective Official  patrons,  lay  and  clerical.  Must  have  been 
such  a  scene  for  a  young  Wife  as  has  seldom  occurred,  in  ro- 
mance or  reality !  Children  continued  to  be  born ;  daughter 
after  daughter ;  but  no  son  that  lived. 

1  Pauli,  iv.  512.  2  jb.  iv.  476. 


1'41     Tin:   llOllKNZuLLEliN.S    IN    DKANDKNIUUG.    U-'-k  111. 

1C'J3. 

Marjraf  Georji'    Frlnirich   cornea  to  PrcaascH   to 
administer. 

After  five  years'  space,  in  1578,*  cure  being  now  hopeless, 
and  the  very  Council  achnittiu^'  that  the  Duke  was  incapabh* 
oi  business,  —  G*'orge  i'"iieJiieh  of  Anspaeh-lJuireulh  euiui' 
into  the  country  to  take  charge  of  him  ;  having  already,  he 
and  the  other  lirandenburgers,  negotiated  the  matter  v.ith  the 
King  of  I'ohind,  in  whose  power  it  mostly  lay. 

George  Friedrich  was  by  no  means  welcome  to  the  Prussian 
.Council,  nor  to  the  Wife,  nor  to  the  Landed  Aristocracy ;  — 
other  than  welcome,  for  reasons  we  can  guess.  But  he  proved, 
in  the  judgment  of  all  fair  witnesses,  an  excellent  Governor  ; 
and,  for  six-aml-twenty  years,  administered  the  country  with 
gi-eat  and  lasting  advantage  to  it.  His  Portraits  rejjresent  to 
us  a  large  jwnderous  ligure  of  a  man,  very  fat  in  his  hitter 
yeai's;  with  an  air  of  honest  sense,  dignity,  comjKjsed  solid- 
ity ;  —  very  lit  for  the  task  now  on  hand. 

He  resolutely,  though  in  mild  form,  smoothed  down  the 
fiaming  tires  of  his  Clergy  ;  commanding  now  this  controversy 
and  then  that  other  controversy  (''  de  concreto  et  de  inroticreto,'^ 
or  whatever  they  were)  to  fall  strictly  silent;  to  carry  tlnni- 
selves  on  by  thought  and  meditation  merely,  and  without 
words.  He  tamed  the  mutinous  Aristocracy,  the  mutinous 
Piirgermeisters,  Town-Council  of  Ktinigsberg,  whatever  mu- 
tiny there  was.  He  drained  bogs,  says  old  Kentsch  ;  he  felled 
woods,  made  roads,  established  inns.  Prussia  was  well  gov- 
erned till  George's  death,  which  happened  in  the  year  1G03.- 
Anspach,  in  the  mean  while,  Anspach,  Baireuth  and  Jiigern- 
dorf,  which  were  latterly  all  his,  he  had  governed  by  deputy ; 
no  need  of  visiting  tliose  quiet  countries,  except  for  purposes 
of  kindly  recreation,  or  for  a  swift  general  supervision,  now 
and  then.  By  all  accounts,  an  excellent,  steadfast,  wise  and 
just  man,  this  fat  George  Friedrich ;  worthy  of  the  Father 
that  produced  him  (''Xit  Kop  ah,  lover  FiJrst,  nit  Kop  abf"), — 
and  that  is  saying  much. 

By  his  death  without  children  much  territory  fell  home  to 

1  Tauli,  iv.  476,  481,  482.  *  Reiit.sch,  pp.  CCC-688. 


Chai".  Xll.  AL13EKT   FKlEDKlCll.  245 

lUUo. 

the  Eldi  r  House  ;  to  be  disposed  of  as  was  settled  in  the  Gera 
Bund  live  years  before.  Anspaeh  and  Baiiv uth  went  to  two 
brothers  of  the  now  Elector,  Kurlurst  Joachim  Friedrich, 
suns  of  Johann  George  of  blessed  memory  :  founders,  they,  of 
the  "  New  Line,"  of  whom  we  know.  Jiigerndorf  the  Elector 
himself  got ;  and  he,  not  long  after,  settled  it  on  one  of  his 
own  sons,  a  new  Johann  George,  who  at  that  time  was  fallen 
rather  landless  and  out  of  a  career:  "Johann  George  of 
Jiigerndorf,"  so  called  thenceforth:  whose  history  will  con- 
ecru  us  by  and  by.  Preusseu  was  to  be  incorporated  with  the 
Electorate,  —  were  possession  of  it  once  had.  But  that  is  a 
ticklish  i)oint ;  still  ticklish  in  spite  of  rights,  and  liable  to 
perverse  accidents  that  may  arise. 

Joachim  Friedrich,  as  wc  intimated  once,  was  not  wanting 
to  himself  on  this  occasion.  But  the  affair  w;is  full  of  intrica- 
cies ;  a  very  wasps'-uest  of  angry  humors  ;  and  re(piired  to  be 
handled  with  delicacy,  though  with  force  and  decision.  Joa- 
chim Friedrich's  eldest  Son,  Johann  Sigismund,  Electoral 
Briuce  of  B.randenburg,  had  already,  in  1504,  nuirried  one  of 
Albert  Friedrich  the  hypochondriac  Duke  of  Breussen's  daugh- 
ters ;  and  there  was  a  promising  family  of  children ;  no  lack 
of  children.  Nevertheless  prudent  Joachim  Friedrich  him- 
self, now  a  widower,  age  towards  sixty,  did  farther,  in  the 
present  emergency,  marry  another  of  these  Brincesses,  a 
younger  Sister  of  his  Son's  Wife,  —  seven  months  after 
George  Friedrich's  death,  —  to  make  assurance  doubly  sure. 
A  man  not  to  be  balked,  if  he  can  help  it.  By  virtue  of  ex- 
cellent management.  —  Duchess,  Brussian  StUvde  (States),  and 
I'olish  Crown,  needing  all  to  be  contented,  —  Joachim  Fried- 
rich, with  gentle  strong  pressure,  did  furthermore  squeeze  his 
way  into  the  actual  Guardianship  of  Breussen  and  the  imbecile 
Duke,  which  was  his  by  right.  This  latter  feat  he  achieved 
in  the  course  of  another  year  (11th  starch,  1605)  ;  *  and  thereby 
fairly  got  hold  of  Breussen ;  which  he  grasped,  "  knuckles- 
white,"  as  we  may  say ;  and  which  his  descendants  have  never 
quitted  since. 

i  Stenzel,  i.  358. 


246     IIIE  110HENZULLERN8  IN   BRANDENBUKG.    Book  III. 

Good  luauagemeiit  was  very  necessary.  The  ihing  was 
diificult;  —  aud  also  was  of  luore  importance  tliaa  we  yet 
altogether  see.  Not  Preussen  only,  but  a  still  better  country, 
the  Duchy  of  Cleve,  Cleve-Julich,  Duke  Wilhelm's  Heritage 
down  in  the  Khineland,  —  Heritage  turning  out  now  to  be  of 
right  his  eldest  Daughter's  here,  aud  likely  now  to  drop  soon, 
—  is  involved  in  the  thing.  This  first  crisis,  of  getting  into 
the  Prussian  Administratorship,  fallen  Viicant,  our  vigilant 
Ivurfurst  Joachim  Friedrich  has  successfully  managed ;  and 
he  holds  his  grip,  knuckles-white.  Before  long,  a  second  crisis 
comes;  where  also  he  will  have  to  gr;usp  decisively  in, — he, 
or  those  that  stand  for  him,  and  whose  knuckles  can  still  hold, 
liut  that  may  go  to  a  new  Chapter. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

NINTH    KrUI-i'usT,    JOUANX    SIGISMUND. 

Ix  the  summer  of  1008  (23d  jMay,  1608)  Johann  Sigismund's 
(and  his  Father's)  Mother-in-law,  the  poor  Wife  of  the  poor 
imbecile  Duke  of  Preussen,  died.*  Upon  which  Johann  Sigis- 
mund,  Heir-Apparent  of  Brandenburg  and  its  expectancies, 
was  instantly  despatched  from  Berlin,  to  gather  up  the  threads 
cut  loose  by  that  event,  and  see  that  the  matter  took  no 
damage.  On  the  road  thither  news  reached  him  that  Ids  own 
Father,  old  Joachim  Friedrich,  w%as  dead  (18th  July,  1608)  ; 
that  he  himself  was  now  Kurf urst  ;  ^  and  that  numerous 
threads  were  loose  at  both  ends  of  his  affairs. 

The  "young  man" — not  now  so  young,  being  full  thirty- 
five  and  of  fair  experience  —  was  in  difficulty,  under  these 
overwhelming  tidings  ;  and  puzzled,  for  a  little,  whether  to 
advance  or  to  return.    He  decided  to  advance,  and  settle  Prus- 

1  M.iria  Eleonora,  Duke  Williehn  of  Cleve'3  eldest  Daughter:  1550,  157.3, 
1608  (Hxibner,  t.  286). 

2  1572,  1G0&-1619. 


Easi^ifrtrrc  irrrc^wuh. 


(iiAi.  \ii.   NlMii    KL'RFURST,  JOHANN   SIGISMUND.    247 

siiin  luattors,  where  the  peril  and  the  risk  were  ;  Braudenburg 
business  he  could  do  by  rescripts. 

His  ditiiculties  in  Preussen,  and  at  the  Polish  Court,  were 
in-  fact  immense.  But  after  a  space  of  eight  or  nine  months, 
he  did,  by  excellent  management,  not  sparing  money  judi- 
ciously laid  out  on  individuals,  arrive  at  some  adjustment, 
better  or  worse,  and  got  Preussen  in  hand ;  ^  legal  Administra- 
tor of  the  imbecile  Duke,  as  his  Father  had  been.  After  which 
he  had  to  run  for  Brandenburg,  without  loss  of  time  :  great 
matters  being  there  in  the  wind.  Nothing  wrong  in  Branden- 
burg, indeed ;  but  the  great  Cleve  Heritage  is  dropjjing,  has 
dropped ;  over  in  Cleve,  an  immense  expectancy  is  now  come 
to  the  point  of  deciding  itself. 

Ifiw  the  Cleve  Heritage  dropped,  attd  many  Hprang  to  pick 

it  up. 

Willu'lm  of  Cleve,  the  explosive  Duke,  whom  we  saw  at 
Berlin  and  Konigsberg  at  the  wedding  of  this  poor  Lady  now 
deceased,  had  in  the  marriagf-contraot,  as  he  did  in  all  subse- 
quent contracts  and  deeds  of  like  nature,  announced  a  Settle- 
ment of  his  Estates,  which  was  now  become  of  the  highest  mo- 
ment for  Johann  Sigisnmnd.  The  Country  at  that  time  called 
Duchy  of  Cleve,  consisted,  as  we  said  above,  not  only  of  Cleve- 
Proper,  but  of  two  other  still  better  Duchies,  Jiilich  and  Berg; 
then  of  the  Grafsrhoft  (County)  of  Piavensburg,  County  of 
^lark.  Lordship  of  —  In  fact  it  was  a  multifarious  agglom- 
erate of  many  little  countries,  gathered  by  marriage,  heritage 
and  luck,  in  the  course  of  centuries,  and  now  united  in  the 
hand  of  this  Duke  Wilhelm.  It  amounted  perhaps  to  two 
Yorkshires  in  extent."'^  A  naturally  opulent  Country,  of  fertile 
meadows,  shipping  capabilities,  metalliferous  hills  ;  and,  at  this 
time,  in  consequence  of  the  Dutch-Spanish  War,  and  the  mul- 
titude of  Protestant  refugees,  it  was  getting  filled  with  in- 
genious industries  ;  and  rising  to  be,  what  it  still  is,  the  busiest 
quarter  of  Germany.     A  Country  lo'.ving  with  kine;  the  hum 

1  29th  April,  1609.     Stenzel,  i.  370. 

2  See  Biisching,  Erdbeschrcibuny,  v.  642-734. 


248    THE  HOHENZOLLERNS  IN   BKANDENIU'K'C.    H--k  MI. 

of  the  flax-spindle  heard  in  its  cottages,  in  those  old  days,  — 
'•'mucliof  the  linen  called  Hollands  is  made  in  Jidicli,  and  only 
Mt-ached,  stamped  and  sold,  by  the  Dutch,"  says  liiisching. 
A  Country,  in  our  days,  which  is  shrouded  at  short  intervals 
with  the  due  canopy  of  coal-smoke,  and  loud  with  sounds  of 
the  anvil  and  the  loom. 

This  Duchy  of  Cleve,  all  this  fine  agglomerate  of  Duchies, 
Duke  AVilhelm  settled,  were  to  be  inherited  in  a  piece,  by  his 
eldest  (or  indeed,  as  it  soon  proved,  his  only)  Sou  and  the 
iieirs  of  that  Son,  if  there  were  any.  Failing  heirs  of  that 
only  Son,  then  the  entire  Duchy  of  Cleve  was  to  go  to  Maria 
Eleonora  as  eldest  Daughter,  now  marrying  to  Friedrich  Al- 
bert, Duke  of  Prussia,  and  to  their  heirs  lawfully  begotten  : 
heirs  female,  if  there  happened  to  be  no  male.  The  other 
Sisters,  of  whom  there  were  three,  were  none  of  them  to  have 
the  least  pretence  to  inherit  Cleve  or  any  part  of  it.  On  the 
contrary,  they  were,  in  such  event,  of  the  eldest  Daughter  or 
her  heirs  coming  to  inherit  Cleve,  to  have  each  of  them  a  sum 
of  ready  money  paid  ^  by  the  said  inheritrix  of  Cleve  or  her 
heirs ;  and  on  receiving  that,  were  to  consider  their  claims 
entirely  fulHlled,  and  to  cease  thinking  of  Cleve  for  the 
future. 

This  Settlement,  by  express  privilege  of  Kaiser  Karl  V., 
nay  of  Kaiser  Maximilian  before  liim,  and  the  Laws  of  the 
lleich,  Duke  Wilhelm  doubted  not  he  was  entitled  to  make ; 
and  this  Settlement  he  made ;  his  Lawyers  writing  down  the 
terms,  in  their  wearisome  way,  perhaps  six  times  over ;  and 
struggling  by  all  methods  to  guard  against  the  least  misunder- 
standing. Cleve  with  all  its  appurtenances,  Jiilicli,  Berg  and 
the  rest,  goes  to  the  eldest  Sister  and  her  heirs,  male  or  female : 
If  she  have  no  heirs,  male  or  female,  then,  but  not  till  then, 
the  next  Sister  steps  into  her  shoes  in  that  matter :  but  if  she 
have,  then,  we  repeat  for  the  sixth  and  last  time,  no  Sister  or 
Sister's  Kepresentative  has  the  least  word  to  say  to  it,  but 
takes  her  £100,000,  and  ceases  thinking  of  Cleve. 

The  other  three  Sisters  were  all  gradually  married ;  —  one 

1  '  200,000  ^oWyw/rftn,"  about  £100,000:   Tauli,  vi   542;  iii.  504- 


L'HAi-.  xiii.    NINTH  KUKFUKST,  JOHANN  SIGISMUND.    249 

1G09. 

of  them  to  Pfalz-Neuburg,  an  euiiueut  Prince,  in  the  Bavarian 
region  called  the  Ober-Pfalz  (Upper  Palatinate),  who,  or  at 
least  whose  eldest  Son,  is  much  worth  mentioning  and  remem- 
bering by  us  here  ;  —  and,  in  all  these  marriage-contracts, 
Wilhelm  and  his  Lawyers  expressed  themselves  to  the  like 
effect,  and  in  the  like  elaborate  sixi'old  manner  :  so  that 
Wilhelm  and  they  thought  there  could  nowhere  in  the  world 
be  any  doubt  about  it. 

Shortly  after  signing  the  last  of  these  marriage-contracts,  or 
perhaps  it  was  in  the  course  of  signing  them,  Duke  Wilhelm 
had  a  stroke  of  palsy.  lie  had,  before  that,  gone  into  Papistry 
again,  poor  man.  The  truth  is,  he  had  repeated  strokes  ;  and 
being  an  abrupt,  explosive  Herr,  he  at  last  quite  yielded  to 
palsy  ;  and  sank  slowly  out  of  the  world,  in  a  cloud  of  semi- 
insanity,  which  lasted  almost  twenty  years.'  Duke  Wilhelm 
did  leave  a  Son,  Johann  Wilhelm,  who  succeeded  him  as  Duke. 
But  this  Son  also  proved  exjdosive ;  went  half  and  at  length 
wholly  insane.  Jesuit  I'riests,  and  their  intrigues  to  bring  back 
a  Protestant  country  to  the  bosom  of  the  Church,  wrapped  the 
poor  man,  all  his  days,  as  in  a  burning  Nessus'-Shirt ;  and  he 
did  little  but  mischief  in  the  world.  He  married,  had  no  chil- 
dren ;  he  accused  his  innocent  Wife,  the  Jesuits  and  he,  of 
infidelity.  Got  her  judged,  not  ju-operly  sentenced;  and  then 
strangled  her,  he  and  they,  in  her  bed :  —  "  Jacobea  of  Baden 
(1597) ; "  a  thrice-tragic  history.  Then  he  married  again ; 
Jesuits  being  extremely  anxious  for  an  Orthodox  heir :  but 
again  there  came  no  heir ;  there  came  only  new  blazings  of  the 
Nessus'-Shirt.  In  fine,  the  poor  man  died  (Spring,  1609),  and 
made  the  world  rid  of  him.  Died  25th  March,  1609  ;  that 
is  the  precise  date  ;  —  about  a  month  before  our  new  Elector, 
Johann  Sigismund,  got  his  affairs  winded  \\\)  at  the  Polish 
Court,  and  came  galloping  home  in  such  haste.  There  was 
pressing  need  of  him  in  the  Cleve  regions. 

For  the  painful  exactitude  of  Duke  Wilhelm  and  his  Law- 
yers has  profited  little ;  and  there  are  claimants  on  claimants 
rising  for  that  valuable  Cleve  Country.     As  indeed  Johann 
1  Died  25th  January,  1592,  age  76. 


260    THE  IIUHENZULLEKNS  IN  BRANDENBURG.    Book  III. 

1G()9. 

Sigismund  had  anticipated,  and  been  warned  from  all  quarters 
to  expect.  For  months  past,  he  h:is  had  his  faculties  bent, 
with  lynx-eyed  attention,  on  that  scene  of  things  ;  doubly  and 
trebly  imjjatient  to  get  Preussen  sohlered  up,  ever  since  this 
other  matter  came  to  the  bursting-point.  AVhat  could  be  done 
by  the  utmost  vigilance  of  his  Deputies,  he  had  done.  It 
was  the  LT'th  of  ^larch  when  the  mad  Duke  died :  on  the  4th 
of  April,  Johann  Sigismund's  Deputy,  attended  by  a  Notary 
to  record  the  act,  ''  iixed  up  the  Brandenburg  Arms  on  the 
Goverumeut-House  of  Cleve  ;  "  *  on  the  Hth,  they  did  tlie  same 
at  Dusscldorf  ;  on  the  following  days,  at  Jiilich  and  the  other 
Towns.  But  already  on  the  ath,  they  had  hardly  got  done  at 
Diisseldorf,  when  there  appeared  —  young  Wolfgang  Wilhelm, 
Heir-Apparent  of  that  eminent  I'falz-Neuburg,  he  in  person, 
to  put  uj)  the  rfalz-Neuburg  Arms  !  Ffalz-Neuburg,  who 
mai-ried  the  Second  Daugliter,  he  is  actually  claiming,  then  ;  — 
the  whole,  or  part?  Both  are  sensibh-  that  possession  is  nine 
points  in  law, 

rfalz-Neuburg's  claim  was  for  the  whole  Duchy.  ''  All  my 
serene  Mother's  ! "  cried  the  young  Heir  of  I'falz-Neuburg  : 
"  Properly  all  mine!"  cried  he,  "  Is  not  she  nearest  of  kin  ? 
Second  Daughter,  true ;  but  the  Daughter  ;  not  Daughter  of  a 
Daughter,  as  you  are  (as  your  Serene  Electress  is),  0  Dunh- 
laucht  of  Brandenburg:  —  consider,  besides,  you  are  female, 
I  am  male  ! "  That  was  Pfalz-Ncuburg's  logic :  none  of  the 
best,  I  think,  in  forensic  genealogy.  His  tenth  point  was  per 
haps  rather  weak;  but  he  had  possession,  co-possession,  and 
the  nine  points  good.  The  other  Two  Sisters,  by  their  Sons 
or  Husbands,  claimed  likewise  ;  but  not  the  whole  :  "  Divide 
it,"  said  they :  "  that  surely  is  the  real  meaning  of  Karl  V.'s 
Deed  of  Privilege  to  make  such  a  Testament.  Divide  it  among 
the  Four  Daughters  or  their  representatives,  and  let  us  all 
have  shares ! " 

Nor  were   these   four  claimants  by  any  means  all.      The 

Saxon   Princes   next   claimed  ;    two    sets   of   Saxon    Princes. 

First  the  minor  set,  Gotha- Weimar  and  the  rest,  the  Ernestine 

Line  so  called ;  representatives  of  Johann  Friedrich  the  Mag- 

1  Pauli,  vi.  506. 


Chap.  XIII.  NINTH   KURFURST,  JOHANN   SIGISMUND.    251 

1G09.  ' 

naniinous,  who  lost  the  Electorate  for  religion's  sake  at  Miihl- 
berg  in  the  i)ast  century,  and  from  major  became  minor  in 
Saxon  Genealogy.  "  Magnanimous  Johanu  Friedrich,"  said 
tliey,  "  had  to  wife  an  Aunt  of  the  now  deceased  Duke  of 
Cleve  ;  Wife  Sibylla  (sister  of  the  Flanders  Mare),  of  famous 
memory,  our  lineal  Ancestress.  In  favor  of  whom  her  Father, 
the  then  reigning  Duke  of  Cleve,  made  a  marriage-contract 
of  i)recisely  similar  import  to  this  your  I'russian  one  :  lie, 
and  barred  all  his  descendants,  if  contracts  are  to  be  valid.'' 
This  is  the  claim  of  the  Ernestine  Line  of  Saxon  Princes; 
not  like  to  go  for  much,  in  thi-ir  present  disintegrated  con- 
dition. 

But  the  Albertine  Line,  the  present  Elector  of  Saxony,  also 
cl.iims:  "Here  is  a  Deed,"  said  he,  "executed  by  Kaiser  Fried- 
rifh  III.  in  the  year  1483,*  generations  before  your  Kariser 
Karl ;  Deed  solemnly  granting  to  Albert,  junior  of  Sachstn, 
and  to  his  heirs,  the  reversion  of  those  same  Duchies,  should 
/-  the  Male  Line  happen  to  fail,  as  it  was  then  likely  to  do.  How 
could  Kaiser  Max  revoke  his  Father's  deed,  or  Kaiser  Karl  his 
Great-grandfather's  ?  Little  Albert,  the  Albert  of  the  Prin- 
zenraxih,  he  who  grew  big,  and  fought  lion-like  for  his  Kaiser 
in  the  Netherlands  and  AVestern  Countries  ;  he  and  his  have 
clearly  the  heirship  of  Cleve  by  right ;  and  we,  now  grown 
Electors,  and  Seniors  of  Saxony,  demand  it  of  a  grateful  House 
of  Hapsburg,  —  and  will  study  to  make  ourselves  convenient 
in  return  "  — 

"  Nay,  if  that  is  your  rule,  that  old  Laws  and  Deeds  are  to 
come  in  bar  of  new,  we,"  cry  a  multitude  of  persons,  —  French 
Dukes  of  Nevers,  and  all  manner  of  remote,  exotic  figures 
among  them,  —  "  we  are  the  real  heirs  !  Ravensburg,  Mark, 
Berg,  Ravenstein,  this  patch  and  the  other  of  that  large  Duchy 
of  yours,  were  they  not  from  primeval  time  expressly  limited 
to  heirs-male  ?  Heirs-male ;  and  we  now  are  the  nearest  heirs- 
male  of  said  patches  and  portions ;  and  will  prove  it !  "  —  In 
short,  there  never  was  such  a  Lawsuit,  —  so  fat  aa  affair  for 
the  attorney  species,  if  that  had  been  the  way  of  managing 
it,  —  as  this  of  Cleve  was  likely  to  prove. 
^  Pauli,  ubi  supra  ;  Hiibner,  t.  286. 


252    THE  IIOIIENZOLLEKNS  IX   BRANDENBURG.  B<i"k  III. 

161W. 

The  Kaiser^s  Thoughts  about  it,  and  the  World's. 

What  greatly  complicated  the  affair,  too,  was  the  interest 
the  Kaiser  took  in  it.  The  Kaiser  could  not  well  brook  a 
jiowerful  Protestant  in  that  country  ;  still  less  could  his 
Cousin  the  Spaniard.  Spaniards,  worn  to  the  ground,  coercing 
that  world-famous  Butch  Revolt,  and  astonished  to  find  that 
they  could  not  coerce  it  at  all,  had  resolved  at  this  time  to 
take  breath  before  trying  fartlier.  Spaniards  and  Dutch,  after 
Fifty  years  of  sueh  iigliting  as  we  know,  have  made  a  Twelve- 
years'  Truce  (1609)  :  but  the  baffled  Spaniard,  panting,  pale  in 
his  futile  rage  and  sweat,  has  not  giveji  up  the  matter ;  he  is 
only  taking  breath,  and  will  try  it  again.  Now  Cleve  is  his 
road  into  Holland,  in  such  adventure ;  no  sutcess  possible  if 
Cleve  be  not  in  good  hands.  Brandenburg  is  Protestant,  -pow- 
erful ;  Prandenburg  will  not  do  for  a  neighbor  there. 

Nor  will  Pfalz-Neuburg.  A  Protestant  of  Protestants,  this 
Palatine  Xeuburg  too, — junior  branch,  possible  heir  in  time 
coming,  of  Kur-Pfalz  (Elector  Palatine)  himself,  in  the  Rhino 
Countries ;  of  Kur-Pfalz,  who  is  acknowledged  Chief  Protes- 
tant :  official  "President"  of  the  "  Evangelical  Union"  they 
have  lately  made  among  them  in  these  menacing  times;  — 
Pfalz-Xeuburg  too,  this  yoimg  Wolfgang  Wilhelm,  if  he  do 
not  break  off  kind,  might  be  very  awkward  to  the  Kaiser  in 
Cleve-Jiilich.  Nay  Saxony  itself ;  for  they  are  all  Protes- 
tants :  —  \udess  perhaps  Saxony  might  become  pliant,  and  try 
to  make  itself  useful  to  a  munificent  Imperial  House  ? 

Evidently  what  woidd  best  suit  the  Kaiser  and  Spaniards, 
were  this.  That  no  strong  Power  whatever  got  footing  in 
Cleve,  to  grow  :;tronger  by  the  possession  of  such  a  country :  — 
better  than  best  it  would  suit,  if  he,  the  Kaiser,  could  him- 
self get  it  smuggled  into  his  hands,  and  there  hold  it  fast  I 
Which  privately  was  the  course  resolved  upon  at  headquar- 
ters. —  In  this  way  the  "  Succession  Controversy  of  the  Cleve 
Duchies  '  is  coming  to  be  a  very  high  matter ;  mixing  itself 
i:p  with  the  grand  Protestant-Papal  Controversy,  the  general 
armed-lawsuit  of  mankind  in  that  generation.  Kaiser,  Span- 
iard, Dutch,  English,  French  Henri  IV.  and  all  mortals,  are 
getting  concerned  in  the  decision  of  it. 


CiiAP.  XIV.  A  GREAT  WAR  COMING.  253 

i6oy. 


.CHAPTER  XIV. 

SYMPTOMS    OF    A    GREAT    WAR    COMIXO. 

Meanwhile  Brandenburg  and  Neuburg  both  hold  grip  of 
Cleve  in  that  manner,  with  a  mutually  menacing  inquiring 
expression  of  countenance  ;  each  grasps  it  (so  to  speak)  con- 
vulsively with  the  one  hand,  and  has  with  the  other  hand  his 
sword  by  the  hilt,  ready  to  fly  out.  But  to  understand  this 
Brandenburg-Neuburg  phenomenon  and  the  then  signihcance 
of  the  Cleve-Jiilich  Controversy,  we  nuist  take  the  following 
bits  of  Chronology  along  with  us.  For  the  German  Empire, 
with  Protestant  complaints,  and  Papist  usurpations  and  se- 
verities, was  at  this  time  all  a  continent  of  sour  thick  smoke, 
already  breaking  out  into  dull-red  flashes  here  and  there,  — 
symptoms  of  the  universal  conflagration  of  a  Thirty- Years 
"War,  which  followed.  Si/mjitom  First  is  that  of  Douauwcirth, 
and  dates  above  a  year  back. 

First  Si/mj^tom ;   Donauworth^  1608. 

Donauworth,  a  Protestant  Imperial  Free-town,  in  the  Bava- 
rian regions,  had  been,  for  some  fault  on  the  part  of  the  popu- 
lace against  a  flaring  ^Mass-procession  which  had  no  business 
to  be  there,  put  under  Ban  of  the  Empire  ;  had  been  seized 
accordingly  (December,  1607),  and  much  cuffed,  and  shaken 
about,  by  Duke  Maximilian  of  Bavaria,  as  executor  of  the 
said  Ban ;  ^  —  who,  Avhat  was  still  worse,  would  by  no  means 
give  up  the  Town  when  he  had  done  with  it ;  Town  being 
handy  to  him,  and  the  man  being  stout  and  violently  Papist. 
Hence  the  "  Evangelical  Union  "  which  we  saw,  —  which  has 
not  taken  Donauworth  yet.  Nor  ever  will !  Donauworth 
never  was  retaken ;  but  is  Bavarian  at  this  hour.  A  Town 
namable  in  History  ever  since.  Not  to  say  withal,  that  it 
^  Michaelis,  ii.  216  ;   Buddaei  Lexicon,  i.  853. 


254    THE  IIOIIENZOLLERNS  IN  BRANDENBURG.  Tu^ok  TTT. 

1G()9. 

is  where  Marlborough  did  "  the  Lines  of  Schellenberg "  long 
after:  Schellenberg  ('^  Jingle-IIill,"  so  to  render  it)  looks  down 
across  the  Danube  or  Donau  River,  upon  Donauwiirth,  —  its 
**  Lines,"  and  other  histories,  now  much  abolished,  and  quiet 
under  grass. 

But  now  all  Protestantism  sounding  everywhere,  in  angry 
mournful  tone,  "  Donau  worth  !  Give  up  Donauwiirth  I  "  —  and 
an  "Evangelical  Union,"  with  moneys,  with  theoretic  contin- 
gents of  force,  being  on  foot  for  that  and  the  like  objects  ;  — 
we  can  fancy  what  a  scramble  this  of  Cleve-.Julich  was  like 
to  be ;  and  especially  what  effect  this  duelling  attitude  of 
Brandenburg  and  Xeuburg  had  on  the  I'rotestant  mind.  I'rot- 
estant  neighbors,  Landgi-af  Moritz  of  Hessen-Cassel  at  tluur 
hea<l,  intervene  in  tremulous  haste,  in  the  Clevc-tJiilich  affair : 
"Peace,  U  friends!  Some  bargain;  peaceable  joint-posses- 
sion ;  any  temporary  bargain,  till  we  see !  Can  two  Protes- 
tants fall  to  slashing  one  anothi-r,  in  such  an  aspect  of  the 
Reich  and  its  Jesuitries  ?  "  —  And  they  did  agree  (Dortmund. 
10th  May,  1G09),  the  first  of  their  innumerable  "agreements," 
to  some  temporary  joint-possession;  —  the  thrice-thankful 
Country  doing  homage  to  lK)th,  "  with  oath  to  the  one  that 
shall  be  found  genuine."  And  they  did  endeavor  to  govern 
jointly,  and  to  keep  the  peace  on  those  terras,  though  it  was 
not  easy. 

For  the  Kaiser  had  already  said  (or  his  Aulic  Council  and 
Spanish  Cousin,  poor  Kaiser  Ro<lolf  caring  too  little  about 
these  things,*  had  already  said),  Cleve  must  absolutely  not 
go  into  wrong  hands.     For  which  what  safe  method  is  there, 

1  Rodolf  II.  (Kepler's  too  insolvent  "Patron"),  1576-1612;  then  Mat- 
thias, Rodolf's  Brother,  1612-1619,  rather  tolerant  to  Protestants;—  then 
Ferdinand  II.  his  Uncle's  Son,  1619-1637,  much  the  reverse  of  tolerant,  liy 
whom  mainly  came  the  Thirty- Years  War,  —  were  the  Kaisers  of  this 
Period. 

Ferdin.aml  III.  Son  of  II.  (1637-1657),  who  finisheil  out  the  Thirty- Years 
"War,  partly  by  fighting  of  his  own  in  young  days  (Battle  of  Nordlingen  his 
grandest  feat),  was  Father  of 

Kaiser  Leopold  (165S-1705),  —  whose  Two  Sons  were 
Kaiser  Joseph    (1705-1711)   and     Kaiser   Karl   VI.    (1711-1740),   Maria 
Theresa's  Father. 


Chap.  XIV.  A    GRE.XT    WAR   COMING.  255 

1610. 

but  that  the  Kaiser  himself  become  proprietor  ?  A  Letter  is 
yet  extant,  from  the  Aulic  Council  to  their  Vice-Chancellor, 
who  had  been  sent  to  negotiate  this  matter  with  the  parties  ; 
Letter  to  the  effect,  That  such  result  was  the  only  good  one  ; 
that  it  must  be  achieved ;  "  that  he  must  devise  all  manner  of 
quirks  ((die  Sjj'itzfindigkelten  auffordern  sollte),^'  and  achieve 
it.^  This  curious  Letter  of  a  sublime  Aulic  Council,  or  Im- 
perial Ilof-Iiath,  to  its  Vice-Kanzler,  still  exists. 

And  accordingly  quirks  did  not  prove  undevisable  on  behalf 
of  tfie  Kaiser.  "■  Since  you  cannot  agree,"  said  the  Kaiser, 
"  and  there  are  so  many  of  you  who  claim  (we  having  privately 
stirred  up  several  of  you  to  the  feat),  there  will  be  nothing 
for  it,  but  the  Kaiser  must  put  the  Country  under  sequestra- 
tion, and  take  possession  of  it  with  his  own  troops,  till  a  de- 
cision be  arrived  at,  —  which  probably  will  not  be  soon  !  " 

Second  Symptom ;  Seizure  of  Jidieh  by  the  Kaiser,  and 
Si  eye  and  Recapture  of  it  by  the  Protestant  Parties, 
1(110.  Whereupon  "  Catholic  Leayue,^  to  balance 
"  Evanyelical  Union." 

And  the  Kaiser  forthwith  did  as  he  had  said ;  sent  Arch- 
duke Leopold  with  troops,  who  forcibly  took  the  Castle  of 
Julich  ;  commanding  all  other  castles  and  places  to  surren- 
der and  sequestrate  themselves,  in  like  fashion ;  threatening 
Brandenburg  and  Xeuburg,  in  a  dreadful  manner,  with  Beichs- 
Acht  (Ban  of  the  Empire),  if  they  presumed  to  show  con- 
tumacy. Upon  Avliich  Brandenburg  and  Neuburg,  ranking 
themselves  together,  showed  decided  contumacy  ;  "  tore  down 
the  Kaiser's  Proclamation,"  *  having  good  help  at  their  back. 

And  accordingh',  ''  on  the  4th  of  September,  1610,"  after  a 
two-months'  siege,  they,  or  the  Dutch,  French,  and  Evangelical 
LTnion  Troops  bombarding  along  with  them,  and  "  many  Eng- 
lish volunteers  "  to  help,  retook  Julich,  and  packed  Leopold 
away  again.*    The   Dutch   and  the   French  were   especially 

1  Pauli,  iii.  505. 

-  lb.    iii.  524.    Emperor's  Proclamation,  in  Diisseldorf,  23d  July,  1609, — 
taken  dowTi  solemnly,  1st  August,  1609. 
8  lb.  iii.  527. 


256    THE  IIOIIEXZOLLERNS   IN   lUiAXDENBUHG.    n..,.K  in. 

_  Kilt). 

anxious  about  this  Cleve  business, — poor  Henri  IV.  -was  just 
putting  those  French  troops  in  motion  towards  Jiilich,  when 
Ilavaillae,  the  distraoted  Devil's-Jesuit,  did  his  stroke  ujion 
liiui;  so  that  another  than  Henri  liad  to  lead  in  that  expedition. 
The  actual  Captain  at  the  Siege  -was  Prince  Cliristian  of 
Anhalt,  by  repute  the  first  soldier  of  Germany  at  tluit  i)eriod : 
lie  had  a  horse  shot  under  him,  the  business  being  very  hot 
and  furious ;  —  he  had  still  worse  fortune  in  the  course  of 
years.  There  were  "many  English  volunteers  "  at  this  Siege  ; 
English  nation  hugely  interested  in  it,  though  their  King 
would  not  act  except  diplomatically.  It  was  the  talk  of  all  the 
then  world, — the  evening  song  and  the  morning  prayer  of 
Protestants  especially,  —  till  it  was  got  endeil  in  this  manner. 
It  deserves  to  rank  as  Si/mptoni  Seroml  in  this  business ;  far 
bigger  flare  of  dull  red  in  the  universal  smoke-continent,  than 
that  of  Donauworth  had  been.  Are  there  no  memorials  left 
of  those  ''  English  volunteers,"  then  ?  ^  Alas,  they  might  get 
edited  as  Bromley's  linynl  Letters  are ;  —  and  had  better  lie 
quiet  ! 

"  Evangelical  Union,''  formed  some  two  years  before,  with 
what  cause  we  saw,  has  Kur-Pfalz  ■^  at  the  head  of  it :  but  its 
troops  or  operations  were  never  of  a  very  forcible  character. 
Ivur-Brandenburg  now  joined  it  formally,  as  did  many  more  ; 
Ivur-Sachsen,  anxious  to  make  himself  convenient  in  other 
quarters,  never  would.  Add  to  these  phenomena,  the  now 
decisive  appearance  of  a  "  Catholic  L'uja  "  (League  of  Catholic 
Princes),  which,  by  way  of  counterpoise  to  the  "  Union,"  had 
been  got  up  by  Duke  Maximilian  of  Bavaria  several  months 
ago;  and  which  now,  under  the  same  guidance,  in  these  bad 
circumstances,  took  a  great  expansion  of  figure.  Duke  Maxi- 
milian, "  Donauworth  Max,"  finding  the  Evangelical  Union  go 
so  very  high,  and  his  own  Kaiser  like  to  be  good  for  little  in 
such  business  (poor  hypochondriac  Kaiser  Rodolf  II.,  more 
taken  up  with  turning-looms  and  blow-pipes  than  with  matters 

^  In  Carlyle's  Miscplhnies  (vi.  §  "  Two  Iluiulred  and  Fifty  Years  ago : 
a  Fragment  about  Duels")  is  one  small  scene  belonfjing  to  them. 

-Winter-King's  Father;  died  9th  September,  1610,  few  days  after  this 
recapture  of  Jiilich. 


Chap.  XIV.  A    GREAT    WAR    COMING.  2";7 

1613. 

political,  who  accordingly  is  swept  out  of  Jiilicli  in  such  sum- 
mary way),  —  Donau worth  Max  has  set-n  this  a  necessary  in- 
stitution in  the  present  aspect.  Both  *'  Union ''  and  *'  League  '' 
rapidly  waxed  under  the  sound  of  the  Jiilich  cannon,  as  was 
natural. 

Kur-Sachsen,  for  standing  so  well  aloof  from  the  Union, 
got  from  the  thankful  Kaiser  written  Titles  for  these  Duchies 
of  Cleve  and  Jidich;  Imperial  parchments  and  infeftments 
of  due  extent ;  but  never  any  Territory  in  those  parts.  He 
never  offered  light  for  liis  pretensions ;  and  Brandenburg 
and  Neuburg  —  Neuburg  especially  —  always  answered  him, 
"No!"  with  sword  half-<lrawn.  So  Kur-Sachsen  faded  out 
again,  and  took  only  parchments  by  the  adventure.  Prac- 
tically there  was  no  private  Com])etitor  of  moment  to  Bran- 
denburg, except  this  Wolfgang  Wilhelm  of  Pfalz-Neuburg ; 
he  alone  having  clutched  hold.  —  But  we  hasten  to  Si/mjjt<>//i, 
Third,  which  particularly  concerns  us,  and  will  be  intelli- 
gible now  at  last. 

Symptom  Third;  a  Dinner-scone  at  Diisseldorf,  1613: 
Spaniards  and  Butch  shoulder  arms  in  Cleve. 

Brandenburg  and  Neuburg  stood  together  against  third 
parties ;  but  their  joint-government  was  apt  to  fall  in  two, 
when  left  to  itself,  and  the  pressure  of  danger  withdrawn. 
"  They  governed  by  the  Baths  and  Std/ule  of  the  Country  ;  " 
old  methods  and  old  ofiicial  men :  each  of  the  two  had  his 
own  Vice-Regent  (Statthnlfer)  present  on  the  ground,  who 
jointly  presided  as  they  could.  Jarrings  were  unavoidable ; 
but  how  mend  it  ?  Settle  the  litigated  Territory  itself,  and 
end  their  big  lawsuit,  they  could  not ;  often  as  they  tried 
it,    with    the   whole   world   encouraging    and   urging   them.^ 

1  Old  Sir  Henry  Wotton,  Provost  of  Eton  in  his  old  days,  remembers  how 
he  went  Ambassador  on  this  errand,  —  as  on  many  others  equally  bootless  ;  — 
and  writes  himself  "  Legatus/'  not  only  "  thrice  to  Venice,  twice  to"  &c.  &.C., 
but  also  "  once  to  Holland  iu  the  Juliers  matter  (semel  in  Juliaxiensi  neqotio)  :  " 
see  Rdiqniit  Wottoniance  (London,  1672),  Preface.  It  was  "in  1614,"  say  the 
Biographies  vaguely.  His  Despatches,  are  they  in  the  Paper-Office  still  ? 
His  good  old  Book  deserves  new  e<liting,  his  good  old  genially  pious  life  a 
proper  elucidation,  by  some  faitliful  man. 

VOT,.   T.  17 


258    THE  HOHENZOLLERNS  IX  BRANDENBURG.    13o<.k  hi. 

1G13. 

The  meetings  they  had,  and  the  treaties  and  temporary 
bargains  they  made,  and  kept,  and  coukl  not  keep,  in  these 
and  in  the  following  years  and  generations,  pass  our  power 
of  recording. 

In  1(513  the  Brandenburg  Statthalter  was  Ernst,  the  Elec- 
tor's younger  Brother  ;  Wolfgang  Wilhelm  in  person,  for  his 
Father,  or  rather  for  himself  as  heir  of  his  ^lother,  rejjre- 
sented  Pfalz-Neuburg.  Ernst  of  Brandeubm-g  had  adopted 
Calvinism  as  his  creed;  a  thing  hateful  and  horrible  to  the 
Lutheran  mind  (of  which  sort  was  Wolfgang  Wilhelm),  to 
a  degree  now  altogether  inconceivable.  Discord  arose  in 
consequence  between  the  Statthaltcrs,  as  to  ofiBcial  appoint- 
ments, sacred  and  secular :  "  You  are  for  promoting  Calvin- 
ists  !  "  —  "  And  you,  I  see,  are  for  promoting  Lutherans  I ""  — 
Johaun  Sigismund  himself  had  to  intervene :  Wolfgang  Wil- 
helm and  he  had  their  meetings,  friendly  colloquies :  —  the 
final  colloquy  of  which  is  still  memorable  ;  and  issues  in 
Symptom  Third. 

We  said,  a  strong  flame  of  choler  burnt  in  all  these 
Hoheuzollerns,  though  they  held  it  well  down.  Johann 
Sigismund,  an  excellent  man  of  business,  knew  how  essen- 
tial a  mild  tone  is  :  nevertheless  he  found,  as  this  colloquy 
went  on,  that  human  patience  might  at  length  get  too  much. 
The  scene,  after  some  examination,  is  conceivable  in  this 
wise  :  Place  Diisseldorf,  Elector's  apartment  in  the  Schloss 
there ;  time  late  in  the  Year  1G13,  Day  not  discoverable  by 
me.  The  two  sat  at  dinner,  after  much  colloquy  all  morning  : 
Johann  Sigismund,  a  middle-aged,  big-headed,  stern-faced, 
honest-looking  man ;  hair  cropped,  I  observe ;  and  eyelids 
slightly  contracted,  as  if  for  sharper  vision  into  matters : 
AYolfgang  Wilhelm,  of  features  fallen  dim  to  me  ;  an  airy 
gentleman,  well  out  of  his  teens,  but,  I  doubt,  not  of  wisdom 
sufficient ;  evidently  very  high  and  stiff  in  his  ways. 

His  proposal,  by  way  of  final  settlement,  and  end  to  all 
these  brabbles,  was  this,  and  he  insisted  on  it :  "  Give  me 
your  eldest  Princess  to  wife ;  let  her  dowry  be  your  whole 
claim  on  Cleve-Julich  ;    I  will  marrv  her  on   that  condition, 


Chap.  XIV.  A  GREAT   WAR  COMING.  259 

1G13. 

and  we  shall  be  friends !  "  Here  evidently  is  a  gentleman 
that  does  not  want  for  conceit  in  himself: — consider  too, 
in  Johann  Sigismund's  opinion,  he  had  no  right  to  a  square 
inch  of  these  Territories,  though  for  peace'  sake  a  joint 
share  had  been  allowed  him  for  the  time !  "  On  that  con- 
dition, jackanapes  ?  "  thought  Johann  Sigismund :  "  My  girl 
is  not  a  monster ;  nor  at  a  loss  for  husbands  fully  better 
than  you,  I  should  hope  ! "  This  he  thought,  and  could  not 
help  thinking;  but  endeavored  to  say  nothing  of  it.  The 
young  jackanapes  went  on,  insisting.  Nature  at  last  pre- 
vailed; Johann  Sigismund  lifted  his  hand  (princely  eti- 
quettes melting  all  into  smoke  on  the  sudden),  and  gave 
the  young  jackanapes  a  slap  over  the  face.  Veritable  slap ; 
which  opened  in  a  dreadful  manner  the  eyes  of  young  Pfalz- 
Neuburg  to  his  real  situation ;  and  sent  him  off  high-flaming, 
vowing  never-imagined  vengeance.  A  remarkable  slap ;  well 
testified  to,  —  though  the  old  Histories,  struck  blank  with 
terror,  reverence  and  astonishment,  can  for  most  part  only 
symbol  it  in  dumb-show  ;  ^  a  slap  that  had  important  conse- 
quences in  this  world. 

For  now  Wolfgang  Wilhelm,  flaming  off  in  never-imagined 
vengeance,  posted  straight  to  ^Miinchen,  to  Max  of  Bavaria 
there ;  declared  himself  convinced,  or  nearly  so,  of  the  Eoman- 
Catholic  Religion ;  wooed,  and  in  a  few  weeks  (10th  Novem- 
ber, 1613)  wedded  Max's  younger  Sister;  and  soon  after,  at 
Dusseldorf,  pompously  professed  such  his  blessed  change  of 

1  Pufendorf  {Rer.  Brandenh.  lib.  iv.  §  16,  p.  213),  and  many  others,  are  in 
this  case.  Tobias  Pfanner  (Historia  Pads  Westphalicie,  lib.  i.  §  9,  p.  26)  i.s 
explicit :  "  Ncqne,  ut  infula  regnaudi  societas  est,  Brandenburgio  et  Neoburgio  diu 
convemobnt;  eorumqne.  jnrgia,  cum  matrimonii  foedere  pacari  posse  propmqui 
ipsonim  credidissent,  acrius  exarsere ;  inter  epulas,  quibus  futurum  generum  Sep- 
temvir  (the"  Seveusman,"  or  Elector,  "One  of  The  Seven")  excipiebat,  hujits 
enim  Jilia  Wolfgango  sperabatur,  ob  nescio  quos  sermones  eh  inter  utrumque  alter- 
calione  provectd,  ut  Elector  irce  impotentior,  nulla  dignitatis,  hospitii,  cognationis, 
affinitatisve  i^erecundid  cohibitas,  intenderit  Neoburgio  manus,  et  contra  tendentis 
OS  verberaverit.  Ita,  qua:  apud  roncordes  vivcula  caritntis,  incitamenta  irarum 
apud  infensos  erant."  (Cited  in  Kohler,  Miinzhehistigungen,  xxi.  341  ;  who 
refers  also  to  Levassor,  Histoire  de  Louis  XZ"//.)  —  Pauli  (iii.  542)  becomes 
quite  vaporous. 


2G0  Tin:  iioiienzolleuns  in  uilvnuenbukcj.  «'>"«  m. 

loi4. 

Belief,  —  with  iiniuense  flourisli  of  trumpeting,  and  jubilant 
l)iinii)lileteeiiug,  from  Holy  Cliureh.'  His  poor  <j1iI  Father, 
the  (levoutest  of  I'rotestiUits,  wailed  aloud  his  "  Icliabod  I  the 
glory  is  departed  I  "  —  holding  '•  weekly  fast  and  humiliation "' 
ever  after,  —  and  died  in  f"W  months  of  a  broken  heart.  The 
Catholic  League  1ku>  now  a  new  Member  on  those  terms. 

And  on  tiie  other  hand,  Johann  8igisniund,  nearly  with  the 
like  luuste  (L'.")th  Decrndx-r,  1(»1.'{),  declared  himself  eimvineed 
of  Calvinism,  his  younger  Brother's  creed  ;  ^ —  which  continues 
ever  since  the  lirandenburg  Court-creed,  that  of  the  I'eojile 
being  mostly  Lutheran.  Men  saiil,  it  w;u>  to  plea.se  the 
Dutch,  to  plea.se  the  .Jiilichers,  most  of  whom  are  Calvinist. 
Ajwlogetic  Pauli  is  elaborate,  but  inconclusive.  It  waa  very 
ill  taken  at  Hi-rlin,  where  even  i»opular  riot  asose  on  the 
matter.     Li   Prussia  too  it  had  its  drawbat-ks.' 

And  now,  all  being  full  of  mutation,  rearrangement  and 
infinite  rumor,  there  marched  next  year  (IGll),  on  slight 
pretext,  resting  on  great  suspicions,  Spanish  troops  into  the 
Jidich-Cleve  country,  and,  countenanced  by  Neuburg,  began 
seizing  garrisons  tiu're.  Whert-iipon  Dutch  troops  likewise 
marclicd,  co\nitenanced  by  lirandenburg,  and  occuj)ied  other 
fortresses  and  garrisons :  and  so,  in  every  strong-phiee,  there 
were  eitlier  Papist-Spaniards  or  Calvinist-Dutch  ;  who  stood 
there,  fronting  one  another,  and  could  not  by  treatying  be 
got  out  again  ;  —  like  clouds  positively  electric  versus  clouds 
negatively.  As  indeed  was  getting  to  be  the  case  of  Germany 
in  general;  case  fatally  visii)le  in  every  Province,  I'rincipality 
and  Parish  there :  till  a  thunder-storm,  and  succession  of 
thunder-storms,  of  Thirty  Years'  continuance,  broke  out.  Of 
which  these  huge  rumors  and  mutations,  and  menacings 
of  war,  springing  out  of  that  final  colloquy  and  slap  in  the 
face,  are  to  be  taken  as  the  Third  premonitory  Symptom. 
Spaniards  and  Dutch  stand  electrically  fronting  one  another 
in  Cleve  for  seven  years,  till  their  Truce  is  out,  before  they 
clash  together  ;  Germany  does  not  wait  so  long  by  a  couple  of 
years. 

1  Kohler,  nbi  snprk  2  Pauli,  iii.  546. 

8  lb.  iii.  544  ;  Michaelis,  i.  340. 


CiiAi-.  XIV.  A  GREAT   WAR   COMING.  261 

Hil6. 

Symptom  Fourth^  and  Catastrophe  upon  the  heels  of  it. 

Five  years  more  (1G18),  and  there  will  luive  come  a 
Fourth  Symptom,  biggest  of  all,  rapidly  consummating  the 
process  ;  —  Symptom  still  famed,  of  the  following  external 
ligure  :  Three  Ollieial  Gentleiiu'u  descending  from  a  window 
in  the  Castle  of  Prag:  hurleil  out  by  impatient  Bohemian 
I'rotestantism,  a  depth  of  seventy  feet,  —  happily  only  into 
dung,  and  without  loss  of  life.  iVom  whi«;h  follows  a  "  King 
of  liohemia "  elected  there,  King  not  unknown  to  us  ;  — 
"  thundern'loud.s ''  all  in  one  huge  ela-sh,  and  the  '*  continent  of 
sour  smoke  ''  blazing  all  into  a  continent  of  thunderous  tire  : 
Tiiiktv-Vkaiw  Wau,  as  they  now  call  it!  Such  a  contiagra- 
tion  ius  poor  Germany  never  saw  before  or  since. 

These  were  the  Four  preliminary  Si/mptunis  of  that  dismal 
business.  "As  to  the  primary  ct/j^-fts  of  it,"  says  one  of  my 
Authorities,  "  these  lie  dee]),  deep  almost  as  those  of  Original 
Sin.  lUit  the  proximate  causes  seem  to  me  to  have  been  these 
two  :  First,  That  the  Jesuit-Priests  and  Principalities  had 
vowed  and  resolved  to  have,  by  God's  help  and  by  the  Devil's 
(this  was  the  peculiarity  of  it),  Europe  made  Orthodox  again  : 
and  then  Secomlhj,  The  fact  that  a  Max  of  Bavaria  existed  at 
that  time,  whose  fiery  character,  cunning  but  rash  head,  and 
fanatically  Papist  heart  disposed  him  to  attempt  that  enter- 
l)rise,  him  with  such  resoui'ces  and  capacities,  under  their  bad 
guidance." 

Johann  Sigismund  did  many  swift  decisive  strokes  of 
business  in  his  time,  businesses  of  extensive  and  important 
nature ;  but  this  of  the  slap  to  Neuburg  has  stuck  best  in 
the  idle  memory  of  mankind.  Diisseldorf,  Year  1613:  it- 
was  precisely  in  the  time  when  that  same  Friedrich,  not  yet 
by  any  means  "  King  of  Bohemia,"  but  already  Kur-Pfalz 
(Cousin  of  this  Neuburg,  and  head  man  of  the  Protestants), 
was  over  here  in  England,  on  a  fine  errand ;  —  namely,  had 
married  the  fair  Elizabeth  (14th  February,  1613),  James  the 
First's  Princess  ;  "  Goody  Palsgrave,"  as  her  Mother  flout- 
ingly called  her,  not  liking  the  connection.      What  kind  of 


2G2    THE  IIOIIENZOLLERNS  IN  BRANDENBURG.   Book  ill. 

1G2U. 

a  "  King  of  Bohemia  "  this  Friedrich  made,  five  or  six  years 
after,  and  what  sea  of  troubles  he  and  his  entered  into,  we 
know;  the  "  IVlnter-Konig  ^^  (Winter-King,  fallen  in  times  of 
frost,  or  built  of  mere  frost,  a  s«o«'-kiug  altogether  soluble 
again)  is  the  name  he  gets  in  German  Histories.  But  here 
is  another  hook  to  lumg  Chronology  upon. 

This  brief  Bohemian  Kingship  had  not  yet  exploded  on 
the  Weisseuberg  of  Brag,'  when  old  Sir  Henry  Wotton  being 
sent  as  Ambassador  "  to  lie  abroad "  (as  he  wittily  called  it, 
to  his  cost)  in  that  Business,  saw,  in  the  City  of  Lintz,  in 
the  picturesque  green  country  V)y  the  shores  of  the  Douau 
there,  an  ingenious  person,  who  is  now  recognizable  as  t)ne 
of  the  remarkablest  of  mankind,  Mr.  John  Kepler,  namely  : 
Kepha-  as  Wotton  writes  him ;  addressing  the  great  Lord 
Bacon  (unhapi)ily  without  strict  date  of  any  kinM)  on  that 
among  other  subjects.  Mr.  John's  now  ever-memorable  watch- 
ing of  those  Motions  of  the  Star  Mnrs,"^  with  '•  cakuhitions 
rejjeated  seventy  times,"  and  also  with  Discovery  of  the  I'lane- 
tary  Laws  of  tliis  Universe,  some  ten  years  ago,  a[)pears  to 
he  unknown  to  Wotton  and  Bacon;  but  tliere  is  something 
else  of  ^Ir.  «John's  devising^  wliieh  deserves  attention  fniiu 
an  Instaurator  of  Philosophy :  — 

''  He  hath  a  little  black  Tent  (of  wluit  .stutT  is  not  much  iiu- 
porting),"  says  the  Ambitssador,  '•  whieli  he  ciin  suddenly  set 
up  where  he  will  in  a  Field;  and  it  is  convertible  (like  a 
windmill)  to  all  quarters  at  pleasure;  capable  of  not  much 
more  than  one  man,  as  I  conceive,  and  perhaps  at  no  great 
ease ;  exactly  close  and  dark.  —  save  at  one  hole,  about  an 
inch  and  a  half  in  the  diameter,  to  which  he  applies  a  long  per- 
spective Trunk,  with  the  convex  glass  fitted  to  the  said  hole, 
and  the  concave  taken  out  at  the  other  end,  which  extendeth 
to  about  the  middle  of  this  erected  Tent :  through  wliich  the 
visible   radiations  of  all  the  Objects  without  are  intromitted, 

^  Battle  there,  Sunday  8th  November,  1620. 

•  De  ifotibus  SteltfE  .\raiiis  ;  Prag,  1609. 

8  It  seems,  Baptista  Porta  (of  Naples,  de.ad  some  years  hefore)  must  have 
given  him  the  essential  lii:it, — of  whom,  or  whose  hint,  Mr.  John  does  not 
happen  to  inform  his  Excellency  at  present. 


Chap.  XIV.  A  GREAT   WAR  COMING.  263 

1620. 

falling  upon  a  Paper,  which  is  accommodated  to  receive  them ; 
and  so  he  traceth  them  with  his  pen  in  their  natural  appear- 
ance ;  turning  his  little  Tent  round  by  degrees,  till  he  hath 
designed  the  whole  Aspect  of  the  Field."  *  —  In  fact  he  hath 
a  Camera  Ohscura,  and  is  exhibiting  the  same  for  the  delec- 
tation of  Imperial  gentlemen  lounging  that  way.  Mr.  John 
invents  such  toys,  writes  almanacs,  practises  medicine,  for 
good  reasons ;  his  encouragement  from  the  Holy  Roman 
Empire  and  mankind  being  only  a  pension  of  £18  a  year,  and 
that  hardly  ever  paid.  An  ingenious  person,  truly,  if  there 
ever  was  one  among  Adam's  Posterity.  Just  turned  of  fifty, 
and  ill  off  for  cash.  This  glimpse  of  him,  in  his  little  black 
tent  with  perspective  glasses,  while  the  Thirty-Years  War 
blazes  out,  is  welcome  as  a  date. 

WJuit  became  of  the  Cleve-Ji'dlch  Ileritage^  and  of  the 
Preussen  one. 

In  till'  Cleve  Duchies  joint  government  had  now  become 
more  difficult  than  ever :  but  it  had  to  be  persisted  in,  — 
under  mutual  offences,  suspicions  and  outbreaks  hardly  re- 
pressed ;  —  no  final  Bargain  of  Settlement  proving  by  any 
method  possible.  Treaties  enough,  and  conferences,  and 
pleadings,  manifestoings  :  —  Could  not  some  painful  German 
collector  of  Statistics  try  to  give  us  the  approximate  quantity 
of  impracticable  treaties,  futile  conferences,  manifestoes,  cor- 
respondences ;  in  brief,  some  authentical  cipher  (say  in  round 
millions)  of  idle  "Words  spoken  by  official  human  creatures, 
and  approximately  (in  square  miles)  the  extent  of  Law  Sta- 
tionery and  other  Paper  written,  first  and  last,  about  this 
Controversy  of  the  Cleve  Duchies  ?  In  that  form  it  might 
have  a  momentary  interest. 

When  the  Winter-King's  explosion  took  place,^  and  his 
own  vinfortunate  Pfalz  (Palatinate)  became  the  theatre  of  war 
(Tilly,  Spinola,  versus  Pfalzers,  English,  Dutch),  involving  all 

1  Reliquice  Wottoniance,  (London  1672),  p.  300. 

2  Crowned  at  Prag,  4th  November  n.s.  1619;  beaten  to  ruin  there,  and 
obliged  to  gallop  (almost  before  dinner  done),  Sunday,  8th  Xoveniber,  1620. 


264    Tiu:  ilOIIENZoLI.KKNS   IN    i;i:ANI)ENBUliG.   Btx.K  III. 

the  neighboring  regions,  Chn-e-Julich  did  not  escape  its  fate. 
The  Sjianiards  and  the  Dutch,  who  had  long  sat  in  gloomy 
armed-truce,  occupying  with  obstinate  precaution  the  maiu 
Fortresses  of  these  Jiilich-Cleve  countries,  did  now  straight- 
way, their  Twelve-Years'  truce  being  out  (1(321),*  fall  to  fight- 
ing and  besieging  one  another  there  ;  the  huge  War,  which 
j)roved  of  Thirty  Years,  Ijeing  now  all  ablaze.  What  the 
country  suffered  in  the  interim  may  be  imagined. 

In  1G24,  in  pity  to  all  parties,  some  attemjjt  at  practical 
Division  of  the  Territory  was  again  made :  Neuburg  to  have 
Berg  and  Jiilich,  Brandenburg  to  have  Cleve,  Mark,  Kavens- 
burg  and  the  minor  ajjpurtenances :  and  Treaty  to  that  effect 
was  got  signed  (11th  -May,  1(»L'4).  But  it  was  not  well  kept, 
nor  could  be ;  and  the  statistic  cipher  of  new  treaties,  mani- 
festoes, conferences,  and  approximate  written  area  of  Law- 
Taper  goes  on  increasing. 

It  was  not  till  forty -two  years  after,  in  166G,  as  will  be  more 
minutely  noticeable  by  and  by,  that  an  effective  partition 
could  be  practically  brought  about.  Nor  in  this  state  was  the 
Lawsuit  l)y  any  means  ended,  —  as  we  shall  wearisomely  see, 
in  times  long  following  that.  In  fact  there  never  was,  in  the 
German  Chanceries  or  out  of  them,  such  a  Lawsuit,  Armed 
or  Wigged,  as  this  of  the  Cleve  Duchies  first  and  last.  And 
the  sentence  was  not  practically  given,  till  the  Congress  of 
Vienna  (1815)  in  our  own  day  gave  it ;  and  the  thing  Jo- 
hann  Sigismund  had  claimed  legally  in  1609  was  actually 
handed  over  to  Johaun  Sigismund's  Descendant  in  the  sev- 
enth generation,  after  two  hundred  and  six  years.  Handed 
over  to  him  then,  —  and  a  liberal  rate  of  interest  allowed. 
These  litigated  Duchies  are  now  the  Prussian  Province  Jiilich- 
Berg-Cleve,  and  the  nucleus  of  Prussia's  possessions  in  the 
Ivhine  country. 

A  year  before  Johann  Sigismund's  death,  Albert  Friedrich, 
the  poor  eclipsed  Duke  of  Prussia,  died  (Sth  August,  1618) : 
upon  which  our  swift  Kurfiirst,  not  without  need  of  his  dexteri- 
ties there  too,  got  peaceable  possession  of  Prussia ;  —  nor  has 
1  Pauli,  vi.  578-580. 


oiiAP.  XV.  Tenth  kurfurst,  george  wilhelm.    2G5 

1020.  ' 

his  Family  lost  hold  of  that,  up  to  the  present  time.  Next 
year  (-ocl  December,  1619),  he  himself  closed  a  swift  busy 
life  (labor  enough  iu  it  for  him  perhaps,  though  only  an  age  of 
forty-nine)  ;  and  sank  to  his  long  rest,  his  works  following 
iiim,  —  unalterable  thenceforth,  not  unfruitful  some  of  them. 


CHArTER   XV. 

TENTH    KlKl-rnST,    (iKOKGK    WILHKI^M. 

r.Y  far  the  unluckiest  of  these  Electors,  whether  the  most 
unworthy  of  them  or  not,  was  George  Wilhelm,  Tenth  Elec- 
tor, who  now  succeeded  Johann  Sigismuud  his  Father.  The 
Father's  eyes  had  closed  when  this  great  tlame  was  breaking 
out ;  and  the  Son's  days  were  all  spent  amid  the  hot  ashes  and 
fierce  blazings  of  it. 

The  position  of  Brandenburg  during  this  sad  Thirt3'-Years 
War  was  passive  rather  than  active  ;  distinguished  only  in  the 
former  way,  and  as  far  as  possible  from  being  glorious  or  vic- 
torious. Never  since  the  Ilohenzollerns  came  to  that  Country 
had  Brandenburg  such  a  time.  Difficult  to  have  mended  it ; 
impossible  to  have  quite  avoided  it ;  —  and  Kurf Urst  George 
A\'ilhelm  was  not  a  man  so  superior  to  all  his  neighbors,  that 
he  could  clearly  see  his  way  in  such  an  element.  The  perfect 
or  ideal  course  was  clear  :  To  have  frankly  drawn  sword  for 
his  Religion  and  his  Rights,  so  soon  as  the  battle  fairly 
opened ;  and  to  have  fought  for  these  same,  till  he  got  either 
them  or  died.  Alas,  that  is  easily  said  and  written ;  but  it 
is,  for  a  George  Wilhelm  especially,  difficult  to  do  !  His  capa- 
bility in  all  kinds  was  limited  ;  his  connections,  with  this  side 
and  that,  were  very  intricate.  Gustavus  and  the  Winter- 
King  were  his  Brothers-in-law  ;  Gustavus  wedded  to  his  Sister, 
he  to  Winter-King's.  His  relations  to  Poland,  feudal  superior 
of  Freussen,  were  delicate ;  and  Gustavus  was  in  deadly  quar- 
rel with  Poland.     And  tlien  Gustavus's  sudden  laying-hold  of 


266    THE  liOlIENZOLLERNS  IN  BRANDENBURG.    Book  III. 

1G20. 

Pommern,  which  had  just  escaped  from  Wallenstein  and  the 
Kaiser  ?  It  must  be  granted,  poor  George  "Wilhelm's  case 
demanded  circumspectness. 

One  can  forgive  him  for  declining  the  Bohemian-King  specu- 
hation,  though  his  Uncle  of  Jiigerndorf  and  his  Cousins  of 
Liegnitz  were  so  hearty  and  forward  in  it.  Pardonable  in  him 
to  decline  the  Bohemian  speculation  ;  —  though  surely  it  is 
very  sad  that  he  found  himself  so  short  of  "  butter  and  fire- 
wood "  when  the  poor  Ex-King,  and  his  young  "Wife,  then  in 
a  specially  interesting  state,  came  to  take  shelter  with  him  !  ^ 
But  when  Gustav\i.s  landed,  and  flung  out  upon  the  winds  such 
a  banner  as  tliat  of  his,  —  truly  it  was  required  of  a  Protestant 
Governor  of  men  to  be  able  to  read  said  banner  in  a  certain 
degree.  A  Governor,  not  too  //«perfect,  would  liave  recognized 
this  Gustavus,  what  his  purposes  and  likelihodds  were;  the 
feeling  would  have  been,  checked  by  due  circumspectness: 
"  Up,  my  men,  let  us  follow  this  man ;  let  us  live  and  die  in 
the  Cause  this  man  goes  for!  Live  otherwise  with  honor,  or 
die  otherwise  with  honor,  we  cannot,  in  the  pass  things  have 
come  to  ! "  —  And  thus,  at  the  very  worst,  Brandenburg  would 
have  had  only  one  class  of  enemies  to  ravage  it ;  and  might 
have  escaped  with,  arithmetically  speaking,  half  the  harrying 
it  got  in  that  long  lUisiness. 

But  Protestant  Germany  —  sad  shame  to  it,  which  proved 
lasting  sorrow  as  well  —  was  all  alike  torpid ;  Brandenburg 
not  an  exceptional  case.  No  Prince  stood  up  as  beseemed : 
or  only  one,  and  he  not  a  great  one  ;  Landgraf  Wilhelm  of 
Hessen,  who,  and  his  brave  Widow  after  him,  seemed  always 
to  know  what  hour  it  was.  Wilhelm  of  Hessen  all  along  ;  — 
and  a  few  wild  hands,  Christian  of  Brunswick,  Christian  of 
Anhalt,  Johann  George  of  Jiigerndorf,  who  stormed  out  tumul- 
tuously  at  first,  but  were  soon  blown  away  by  the  Tilly- Wal- 
lenstein trade-winds  and  regulated  armaments :  —  the  rest  sat 

'  Siilltl  (Geschichte  des  Dreissigjahrigen  Krteges, — a  trivial  modem  Book) 
gives  a  notalile  memorial  from  tlie  Braudeuburg  Ralhs,  concerning  these  their 
difficulties  of  housekeeping.  Their  real  object,  we  perceive,  was  to  get  rid  of 
a  Guest  so  dangerous  as  the  Ex-King,  under  Ban  of  the  Empire,  had  now 
become. 


Chap.  XVI.  THIKTY-YEARS    WAll.  267 

1620. 

still,  and  tried  all  they  could  to  keep  out  of  harm's  way.  The 
"  Evangelical  Union  "  did  a  great  deal  of  manifestoing,  pa- 
thetic, indignant  and  other ;  held  solemn  Meetings  at  Heil- 
bronn,  old  Sir  Henry  Wotton  going  as  Ambassador  to  them  ; 
but  never  got  any  redress.  Had  the  Evangelical  Union  shut 
up  its  inkhorns  sooner  ;  girt  on  its  fighting-tools  when  the 
time  came,  and  done  some  little  execution  with  them  then, 
instead  of  none  at  all,  —  we  may  fancy  the  Evangelical  Union 
woidd  have  better  discharged  its  function.  It  might  have 
^ved  immense  wretchedness  to  Germany.  But  its  course 
went  not  that  way. 

In  fact,  had  there  been  no  better  Protestantism  than  that  of 
Germany,  all  was  over  with  Protestantism ;  and  Max  of  Bava- 
ria, Avith  fanatical  Ferdinand  II.  as  Kaiser  over  him,  and 
Father  Liimmerlcin  at  his  right  hand  and  Father  Hyacinth  at 
his  left,  had  got  their  own  sweet  way  in  this  world.  But 
Protestant  Germany  was  not  Protestant  Europe,  after  all. 
Over  seas  there  dwelt  and  reigned  a  certain  King  in  Sweden  ; 
there  farmed,  and  walked  musing  by  the  shores  of  the  Ouse  in 
Huntingdonshire,  a  certain  man  ;  —  there  was  a  Gustav  Adolf 
over  seas,  an  Oliver  CromAvell  over  seas;  and  "a  company  of 
poor  men  "  were  found  capable  of  taking  Lucifer  by  the  beard, 
—  who  accordingly,  with  his  Lammerleins,  Hyacinths,  Habern- 
feldts  and  others,  was  forced  to  withdraw,  after  a  tough 
struggle  !  — 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

THIRTY-YEARS    WAR. 

The  enormous  Thirty-Years  War,  most  intricate  of  modern 
Occurrences  in  the  domain  of  Dryasdust,  divides  itself,  after 
some  unravellmg,  into  Three  principal  Acts  or  Epochs ;  in 
all  of  which,  one  after  the  other,  our  Kurfiirst  had  an  inter- 
est mounting  progressively,  but  continuing  to  be  a  passive 
interest. 

Act  First  goes  from  1620  to  1624;  and  might  be  entitled 


2G«    Tin:   llolIENZOLLEKNS  IN   BllANDENBUKG.   Book  III. 

1U24. 

"  The  Bohemiau  Kiiig  Made  and  Demolished."  Personally 
the  Boheniiuu  King  was  soon  demolished.  His  Kingship  may 
be  said  to  have  gone  off  by  explosion ;  by  one  Fight,  namely, 
done  on  tlie  Weisseuberg  near  Prag  (Sunday,  8th  November, 
1G20),  while  he  sat  at  dinner  in  the  City,  the  boom  of  the 
cannon  coming  in  with  interest  upon  his  high  guests  and  him. 
lie  had  to  run,  in  hot  haste,  that  night,  leaving  many  of  his 
imi)ortant  j>apers,  —  and  becomes  a  Winter-King.  Winter- 
King's  account  wa.s  soon  settled.  But  the  extirpating  of  his 
Adherents,  and  capturing  of  his  Hereditary  Lauds,  Talatinate 
and  Ujiper-l'alatinate,  took  three  years  more.  Hard  fighting 
for  the  I'uhitinate;  Tilly  and  Company  against  the  ''Evangeli- 
cal-Union Troops,  and  the  English  under  Sir  Horace  V'ere." 
Evangelical-Union  Troo[»s,  though  marching  about  there,  under 
an  Uncle  of  our  Kurliirst  {^Margraf  .loachim  Ernst;  that  lucky 
Anspach  Uncle,  founder  of  "  the  Line  "),  who  professed  some 
skill  in  soldiering,  were  a  mere  Picture  of  an  Army  ;  would 
only  *'  observe,"  and  would  not  tight  at  all.  So  that  the  whole 
fighting  fell  to  Sir  Hora<'e  and  his  jKJor  handful  of  English  ; 
of  whose  grim  posture  "  in  Frankendale  "  *  and  other  Strong- 
holds, for  months  long,  there  is  t;ilk  enough  in  the  old  English 
History -Books. 

Then  then*  were  certain  stern  War-Cai)tains,  who  rallied 
from  the  Weissenberg  Defeat :  —  Christian  of  Brunswick,  the 
chief  of  them,  titular  Bishop  of  Halberstiult,  a  high-flown,  fiery 
young  fellow,  of  terrible  fighting  gifts ;  he  flamed  up  consider- 
ably, with  "the  Queen  of  Bohemia's  glove  stuck  in  his  Hat:" 
'Bright  Lady,  it  shall  stick  there,  till  I  get  you  your  own 
again,  or  die ! " '  Christian  of  Brunswick,  George  of  Jagern- 
dorf  (our  Kurfurst's  Uncle),  Count  Mansfeldt  and  others,  made 
stormy  fight  once  and  again,  hanging  upon  this  central  "  Frank- 

1  Fraiikcuthal,  a  little  Town  Lu  the  r.ilatiuatc,  N.W.  from  Mannheim  a 
Bhort  way. 

■-  1621-1623,  age  not  yet  twenty-five;  died  (by  poii»on),  1626,  having  again 
become  supremely  important  just  then.  "  Gt^tes  Fromd,  d<nr  Pfaffen  Fn'nd 
(God's  Frioud.  Priests'  Foe)  ;  "  "  Alhs  fur  Ruhm  und  Ihr  (All  for  Glory  and 
Her,"  —  the  bright  Elizabeth,  become  Ex-Queen),  were  mottoes  of  his. —  Bud- 
dans  in  voce  (i.  649) ;  Michaelis,  i.  110. 


CiiAi.  XVI.    *  THIRTY-YEARS   WAR.  269 

1024. 

endale  "  Business,  till  they  and  it  became  hopeless.  For  the 
Kaiser  and  his  Jesuits  were  not  in  doubt ;  a  Kaiser  very  proud, 
uuserupulous  ;  now  clearly  superior  in  force,  —  and  all  along  of 
great  superiority  in  framl. 

-  Christian  of  15  runs  wick,  Johann  George  and  Mansft'ldt  were 
got  rid  of :  Christian  by  poison ;  Johann  George  and  Mansfeldt 
by  other  methods,  —  chiefly  by  jdaying  upon  poor  King  James 
of  England,  and  leading  him  by  the  long  nose  he  was  found  to 
have.  The  Palatinate  became  the  Kaiser's  for  the  time  being ; 
UiAijer  Talatinate  (Ober-r/ah)  Duke  Max  of  Bavaria,  lying 
contiguous  to  it,  had  easily  taken.  "  Incorporate  the  Ober- 
Pfalz  with  your  Bavaria,'' said  the  Kaiser,  "you,  illustrious, 
thrice-serviceable  Max  !  And  let  Liimmerlein  and  Hyacinth, 
with  their  Gospel  of  Ignatius,  loose  upon  it.  Nay,  as  a  still 
richer  reward,  be  yours  the  forfeited  Kur  (Electorship)  of  this 
mad  Kur-Bfalz.  or  Winter-King.  1  will  hold  his  lihine-Lands, 
his  Untcr-rfiih:  his  Electorship  and  Obcr-r/alz,  I  say,  are 
yours,  Duke,  henceforth  Kurjurst  Maximilian  ! "  *  Which  was 
a  hard  saying  in  the  ears  of  Brandenburg,  Saxony  and  the 
other  Five,  and  of  the  Reich  in  general ;  but  they  had  all  to 
comjdy,  after  wincing.  For  the  Kaiser  proceeded  with  a  high 
hand.  He  had  put  the  Ex-King  under  Ban  of  the  Empire 
(never  asking  '*  the  Empire  "  about  it)  ;  put  his  Three  principal 
Adherents,  Johann  George  of  Jiigerndorf  one  of  them,  Prince 
Cliristian  of  Anhult  (once  captain  at  the  Siege  of  Juliers) 
another,  likewise  imder  Ban  of  the  Empire ;  ^  and  in  short  had 
flung  about,  and  was  flinging,  his  thunder-bolts  in  a  very  Olym- 
pian manner.  Under  all  which,  what  could  Brandenburg  and 
the  others  do;  but  whimper  some  trembling  protest,  '"Clear 
against  Law  !  "  —  and  sit  obedient  ?  The  Evangelical  Union 
did  not  now  any  more  than  formerly  draw  out  its  fighting- 
tools.  In  fact,  the  Evangelical  Union  now  faii-ly  dissolved 
itself;  melted  into  a  deliquium  of  terror  under  these  thun- 
der-bolts that  were  flying,  and  was  no  more  heard  of  in  the 
world.  — 

1  Kohler,  Reichs-Historie,  p.  520.  -  22d  Jan.  1621  (ibid.  p.  518). 


270    THE  HOIIENZOLLERNS   IN    HRANDENIU'RG.    B.k>k  III. 

itj_>4-iij2y. 

Second  Act,,  or  Epochs  1024-1029.     A  second  Uncle  put  to 
the  Ban,,  and  Pommern  snatched  atvay. 

Except  in  the  "  Nether-Sojcon  Circle "  (distant  Northwest 
region,  with  its  Hanover,  MeckhMiburg,  with  its  rii-h  Ham- 
burgs,  Liibeeks,  Magdeburgs,  all  Protestant,  and  abutting  on 
the  Protestant  North),  trembling  Germany  lay  ridden  over  as 
the  Kaiser  willed.  Foreign  League  got  up  by  France,  King 
James,  Christian  IV.  of  Denmark  (James's  Brother-in-law,  with 
whom  he  had  such  "drinking"  in  Somerset  House,  long  ago, 
on  Cliristian's  visit  liither  '),  went  to  water,  or  worse.  Only 
the  *'  Nether-Saxon  Cirele  "  showed  some  life;  was  levying  an 
army ;  and  had  appointed  Christian  of  Brunswick  its  Captain, 
till  lie  was  got  poisoned;  —  upon  which  the  drinking  King  of 
Denmark  took  the  command. 

Act  Second  goes  from  1G24  to  1G27  or  even  1G20 ;  and  con- 
tains drunken  Christian's  Exploits.  "Which  were  unfortunate, 
almost  to  the  ruin  of  Denmark  itself,  as  well  as  of  the  Nether- 
Saxon  Circle ;  —  till  in  the  latter  of  these  years  he  slightly 
rallied,  and  got  a  sui)iKtrtalile  Pe.ice  granted  him  (l*eace  of 
Liibeek,  1(»21)) ;  after  whicli  he  sits  quiet,  contemplative,  with 
an  evil  eye  upon  Sweden  now  and  then.  The  beatings  he 
got,  in  quite  regular  succession,  from  Tilly  and  Consorts,  are 
not  worth  mentioning  :  the  only  thing  one  now  rememl>ers  of 
him  is  his  alarming  accident  on  the  ramparts  of  Hameln,  just 
at  the  opening  of  these  Campaigns.  At  Hameln,  which  was 
to  be  a  strong  post,  drunken  Christian  rode  out  once,  on  a 
summer  afternoon  (1624),  to  see  that  the  ramparts  were  all 
right,  or  getting  all  right ;  — and  tumbled,  horse  and  self  (self 
in  liquor,  it  is  thought),  in  an  ominous  alarming  manner. 
Taken  up  for  dead  ;  —  nay  some  of  the  vague  Histories  seem 
to  think  he  was  really  deatl :  —  but  he  lived  to  be  often  beaten 
after  that,  and  had  many  moist  years  more. 

Our  Kurfiirst  had  another  Uncle  put  to  the  Ban  in  this 
Second  Act,  —  Christian  "Wilhelm  Archbishop  of  Magdeburg, 
"  for  assisting  the  Danish  King ; "  nor  was  Ban  all  the  ruin 
J  01.1  Histories  of  James  I.  T Wilson,  &c.) 


Chap.  XVI.  TilllJTV-YEAK."^    WAR.  271 

HJ24-1U2J. 

that  fell  on  this  poor  Archbishop.  "What  could  an  unfortunate 
Kui-fiirst  do,  but  tremble  and  obey  ?  There  was  still  a  worse 
smart  got  by  our  poor  Kurl'Urst  out  of  Act  Second  ;  the  glar- 
ing injustice  done  him  in  Pommern. 

■  Does  the  reader  remember  that  scene  in  the  Iligli  Church 
of  Stettin  a  hundred  and  hfty  years  ago?  How  the  IJiirger- 
lu'-ister  threw  sword  and  helmet  into  the  grave  of  the  last 
Duke  of  I'ommern-Stettin  there  ;  and  a  forward  Citizen  picked 
them  out  again  in  favor  of  a  Collateral  Branch  ?  Never  since, 
any  more  than  then,  could  Brandenburg  get  Pommern  accord- 
ing to  claim.  Collateral  Branch,  in  spite  of  Friedrich  Iron- 
teeth,  in  spite  even  of  Albert  Achilles  and  some  fighting  of 
his,  contrived,  by  pleatling  at  the  Diets  and  stirring  up  noise, 
to  maintain  its  pretensions  :  and  Treaties  without  end  ensued, 
as  usual ;  Treaties  refresheil  and  new-signed  by  every  Successor 
of  jVlbert,  to  a  wearisome  degree.  The  sum  of  wiiich  always 
Avas  :  *'  Pommern  does  actual  homage  to  Brandenburg ;  vassal 
of  Brandenburg ;  —  and  falls  home  to  it,  if  the  now  Extant 
Line  go  extinct."  Nay  there  is  an  Erhverbriuhrung  (Heritage- 
Fraternity)  over  and  alwve,  established  this  long  time,  and 
wearisomely  renewed  at  every  new  Accession.  Hundreds  of 
Treaties,  oppressive  to  think  of :  —  and  now  the  last  Duke, 
(»l(l  Bogislaus,  is  here,  without  hope  of  children  ;  and  the  fruit 
t)f  all  that  haggling,  actual  Pommern  to  wit,  will  at  last  fall 
home  ?    ^Vlas,  no ;  far  otherwise. 

For  the  Kaiser  having  so  triumphantly  swejjt  oil"  the  Winter- 
King,  and  Christian  IV.  in  the  rear  of  him,  and  got  Germany 
ready  for  converting  to  Orthodoxy,  —  wished  now  to  have 
some  hold  of  the  Seaboard,  thereby  to  punish  Denmark ;  nay 
thereby,  as  is  hoped,  to  extend  the  blessings  of  Orthodoxy 
into  England,  Sweden,  Holland,  and  the  other  Heretic  States, 
in  due  time.  For  our  plans  go  far  !  This  is  the  Kaiser's  fixed 
wish,  rising  to  the  rank  of  hope  now  and  then :  all  Europe 
shall  become  Papist  again  by  the  help  of  God  and  the  Devil. 
So  the  Kaiser,  on  hardly  any  pretext,  seized  Mecklenburg 
from  the  Proprietors,  —  "  Traitors,  how  durst  you  join  Danish 
Christian?"  —  and  made  Wallenstein  Duke  of  it.  Duke  of 
Mecklenburg,  "  Admiral  of  the  East  Sea  (Baltic) ; "  and  set 


272   Tin:  iioiikxzollkkns  in  i'.kandenbukg.  book  hi. 

to  "building  ships  of  war  in  Kostock," — his  plans  going 
far.*  This  done,  he  seized  Ponimern,  which  also  is  a  tine  Sear 
country,  —  stirring  up  Max  of  iJavaria  to  make  some  idle 
pretence  to  I'ommern,  that  so  the  Kaiser  might  seize  it  "  in 
sequestration  till  decided  on."  Under  which  hard  treatment, 
George  Wilhelm  had  to  sit  sad  and  silent,  —  though  the  Stral- 
sunders  wouhl  not.  Hence  the  world-famous  Siege  of  Stral- 
sund  (1G28) ;  lierce  Wallenstein  declaring,  '*  1  will  have  the 
Town,  if  it  hung  by  a  chain  from  Heaven;''  but  linding  he 
could  not  get  it ;  owing  to  the  Swedish  succor,  to  the  stubborn 
temper  prevalent  among  tlie  Townsfolk,  and  also  greatly  to 
the  rains  and  peat-bogs. 

A  second  Uncle  of  George  Wilhelm's,  that  unlucky  Arch- 
bishop of  Magdel)urg  above  mentioned,  the  Kaiser,  once  more 
by  his  own  arbitrary  will,  put  under  IJan  of  the  Empire,  in 
this  Second  Act:  ''Traitor,  how  durst  you  join  with  the 
Danes  ?"  The  result  of  which  was  Tilly's  Sack  of  Magtleburg 
(l()-lL*tli  ^lay,  l().'Jl),  a  transaction  never  forgettiible  by  man- 
kind.—  As  for  Ponunern,  Gustiiv  Adolf,  on  his  intervening  in 
these  matters,  landed  there :  Pommern  was  now  seized  by 
Gustav  Adolf,  as  a  landing-place  and  j)lace-of-arms,  indispen- 
sable for  Sweden  in  the  j)resent  emergency  ;  and  was  so  held 
thenceforth.  Pommern  will  not  fall  to  George  Wilhelm  at 
this  time. 

Tliird  Act,  and  what  the  Kurfur»t  suffered  in  it. 

And  now  we  are  at  Act  Third : —  Landing  of  Gustav  Adolf 
''  in  the  Isle  of  Usedom,  24th  June,  1630,"  and  onward  for 
Eighteen  Years  till  the  Peace  of  Westphalia,  in  1048 ;  —  on 
which,  as  probably  better  known  to  the  reader,  we  will  r\()X. 
here  go  into  details.  In  this  Third  Act  too,  George  Wilhelm 
followed  his  old  scheme,  peace  at  any  price;  —  as  shy  of 
Gustav  as  he  had  been  of  other  Champions  of  the  Cause  ;  and 
except  complaining,  petitioning  and  manifestoing,  studiously 
did  nothing. 

Poor  man,  it  was  his  fate  to  stand  in  the  range  of  these  huge 
collisions,  —  Bridge  of  Dessau,   Siege   of  Stralsimd,  Sack  of 

1  Kijhlcr.  Rcichi-IIistorie,  pp.  524,  525. 


Cn.vr.  XVI.       '  Til IKTY-YEARS   WAR.  273 

icau. 

Magdeburg,  Battle  of  Leipzig,  —  where  the  Titaus  were  bowl- 
ing rocks  at  one  another ;  and  he  hoped,  by  dexterous  skip- 
ping, to  escape  shai-e  of  the  game.  To  keep  well  with  his 
Kaiser,  —  and  such  a  Kaiser  to  Germany  and  to  him, — this, 
for  George  Wilhelm,  was  always  the  first  commandment.  11" 
the  Kaiser  confiscate  your  Uncles,  against  law;  seize  your 
I'omiucru;  rob  you  on  the  public  highways,  —  George  Wii- 
helni,  even  in  such  case,  is  full  of  dubitations.  .  Nay  his  I'riiue- 
Minister,  one  Schwartzenberg,  a  Catholic,  an  Austrian  Official 
at  oue  time,  —  Progenitor  of  the  Austrian  Schwartzenbergs 
that  now  are,  —  was  secretly  in  the  Kaiser's  interest,  and  is 
even  thought  to  have  been  in  the  Kaiser's  pay,  all  along. 

Gustav,  at  his  first  huuling,  hail  seized  rommern,  ami  swept 
it  clear  of  Austrians,  for  himself  and  for  his  own  wants;  not 
too  regardful  of  George  ^Vilheln^s  claims  on  it.  He  cleared 
out  Frankfurt-on-Uder,  Ciistrin  and  other  Brandenburg  Towns, 
in  a  similar  manner,  —  by  cannon  and  storm,  when  needful;  — 
drove  the  Imperialists  and  Tilly  forth  of  these  countries. 
Advancing,  next  year,  to  save  Magdeburg,  now  shrieking 
under  Tilly's  bombardment,  Gustav  insisted  on  having,  if  not 
some  bond  of  union  from  his  Brother-in-law  of  Brandenburg, 
at  least  the  temporary  cession  of  two  Places  of  War  for 
liimself,  Spandau  and  Ciistrin,  indispensable  in  any  farther 
operation.  Which  cession  Kurfiirst  George  Wilhelm,  though 
giving  all  his  prayers  to  the  Good  Cause,  could  by  no  means 
grant.  Gustav  had  to  insist,  with  more  and  more  emphasis  ; 
advancing  at  last,  with  military  menace,  upon  Berlin  itself. 
He  was  met  by  George  Wilhelm  and  his  Council,  ''  in  the 
woods  of  Ciipenick,"  short  way  to  the  east  of  that  City  :  there 
George  Wilhelm  and  his  Council  wandered  about,  sending 
messages,  hopelessly  consulting;  saying  among  each  other, 
*'  Que  /aire  ;  Us  out  des  canons,  What  can  one  do ;  they  have 
got  cannon  ?  "  ^  For  many  hom-s  so ;  round  the  inflexible 
Gustav, — who  was  there  like  a  fixed  milestone,  and  to  all 

1  (Envres  de  Frederic  le  Grand  (Berlin,   1846-1856  et  seqq. :    Memoires  de 
Bnindebourtj),  i.  38.     For  the  rest,  Friedrich's  Account  of  the  Transaction  is 
very  loose  and  scanty  :  see  Pauli  (iv.  568)  and  his  minute  details. 
VOL.  V.  18 


274  Tin:  iioiienzollerxs  in  im:axi)enbukg.  b->"k  hi. 

1033. 

questions  and  comers  had  only  one  answer  I  —  "  Que  fulre  ;  iU 
ont  dcs  rnnom  ?  "  This  was  the  ;3d  May,  10.31.  This  jirobably 
is  about  the  nadir-point  of  the  Brandenburg-IIohcnzuUern 
History.  The  little  Friedrich,  who  became  Frederick  tho 
Great,  in  writing  of  it,  has  a  certain  grim  banter  in  his  tone  ; 
and  looks  rather  with  mockery  on  the  pcrjdexities  of  his  poor 
Ancestor,  so  fatally  ignorcnt  of  the  time  of  day  it  had  now 
become. 

On  the  whole,  George  Wilhelm  did  what  is  to  be  called 
nothing,  in  the  Thirty-Years  War ;  his  function  was  oidy 
that  of  sufTering.  He  followed  always  the  bad  lead  of  .Tohanu 
George,  Elector  of  Saxony ;  a  man  of  no  strength,  devoutncss 
or  atlequate  human  worth;  who  proved,  on  these  negative 
grounds,  and  without  flagrancy  of  j)nsitive  badness,  an  un- 
speakable curse  to  Germany.  Not  till  the  Kaiser  fulminated 
forth  his  Restitution-Edict,  and  showed  he  was  in  earnest 
alM)ut  it  (l(iL><)-l<>.'U),  "Restore  to  our  Holy  ('hurch  what  you 
have  taken  from  her  since  the  Peace  of  I'assau !  "  —  could 
this  Johann  George  prevail  uj>on  himself  to  join  Sweden,  or 
even  to  do  other  than  hate  it  U)T  rca.sons  he  saw.  Seized  by 
the  throat  in  this  manner,  an<l  ordered  to  de/irer,  Kur-Saehsen 
di<l,  and  Hrandenburg  along  with  him,  make  Treaty  with  the 
Swede.'  In  consequence  of  which  they  two,  some  months 
after,  by  way  of  co-operating  with  Gu.st;iv  on  his  great  nuirch 
Vienna-ward,  sent  an  invading  force  into  Bohemia,  Branden- 
burg contributing  some  \K>oT  .3,()0()  to  it;  who  took  Prag,  and 
some  other  oi>en  Towns ;  but  "  did  almost  nothing  there,''  say 
the  Histories,  "except  dine  and  drink."  It  is  clear  enough 
they  were  instantly  scattered  home  *  at  the  first  glimpse  of 
Wallenstein  dawning  on  the  horizon  again  in  those  parts. 

Gustav  having  vanished  (Field  of  Liitzen,  6th  November, 
1632 '),  Oxenstiern.  with  his  high  attitude,  and  ''  I'residency  " 
of  the  "  Union  of  Heilbronn,"  was  rather  an  offence  to  Kur- 
Saehsen,  who  used  to  be  foremost  man  on  such  occasions. 
Kur-Sachsen  broke  away  again ;   made   his  Peace   of  Prag,* 

1  8th  February,  1631  (Kohler,  Keirhs-HUtorif,  pp.  526-531). 

«  October,  16.33  (Stenzel,  i.  503). 

•  Tauli,  iv.  576.  *  16.55,  20th  May  (Stenzel.  i.  513). 


rii.vr.  XVI.  rillKTY-YKAKS   WAR.  275 

1U40. 

whom  Brandenburg  again  followed ;  Brandenburg  and  grad- 
ually all  tlie  otliers,  except  the  noble  Wilhehu  of  Ilessen- 
Cussel  alone.  Miserable  Peace  ;  bit  of  Chaos  clouted  u}),  and 
done  over  with  Uliieial  varnish;  —  which  proved  to  be  the 
signal  for  continuing  the  War  beyond  visible  limits,  and  ren- 
dering peace  impossible. 

After  this,  George  Wilhelm  retires  from  the  scene ;  lives 
in  Ciistrin  mainly ;  mere  miserable  days,  which  shall  be  in- 
visible to  us.  He  died  in  IGIO;  and,  except  producing  an 
active  brave  Son  very  unlike  himself,  did  nothing  consider- 
able  in  the   worlil.     ''  (Jiir  faiir ;  i/s  uitt  ilcs  canons  f 

Among  the  innumerable  sanguinary  tusslings  of  this  War 
are  eounted  Three  great  B)attles,  Leii)zig,  Liitzen,  Niirdliugen. 
Under  one  great  Captain,  Swedish  Gustav,  and  the  two  or 
three  other  considerable  Captains,  who  appeared  in  it,  high 
pass;iges  of  furious  valor,  of  line  strategy  and  tactic,  are  on 
record.  But  on  the  whole,  the  grand  weapon  in  it,  and 
towards  the  latter  times  the  exclusive  one,  was  Hunger, 
The  opposing  Armies  tried  to  starve  one  another;  at  lowest, 
tried  each  not  to  starve.  Each  trying  to  eat  the  country,  or 
at  any  rate  to  leave  nothing  eatable  in  it:  what  that  will 
mean  for  the  country,  we  may  consider.  As  the  Armies  too 
freijuently,  and  the  Kaiser's  Armies  habitually,  lived  without 
commissariat,  often  enough  without  pay,  all  horrors  of  war 
and  of  being  a  seat  of  war,  that  have  been  since  heard  of,  are 
I>oor  to  those  then  practised.  The  detail  of  which  is  still 
horrible  to  read.  Germany,  in  all  eatable  quarters  of  it,  had 
to  undergo  the  process ;  —  tortured,  torn  to  pieces,  wrecked, 
and  brayed  as  in  a  mortar  iinder  the  iron  mace  of  war.^  Bran- 
denburg saw  its  towns  sieged  and  sacked,  its  country  popu- 
lations driven  to  despair,  by  the  one  party  and  the  other. 
Three  times, — first  in  the .  Wallenstein  Mecklenburg  period, 
while  fire  and  sword  were  the  weapons,  and  again,  twice  over, 

^  Curions  incidental  details  of  the  state  it  was  reduced  to,  in  the  Rhine 
and  Danube  Countries,  turn  up  in  the  Earl  of  Arundel  and  Surrey's  Trarels 
(  "  Anuidel  of  tlie  Marbles  " )  as  Amhassudor  Eilraordlnary  to  the  Emperor  Fer 
diiKvulo  II.  ill  1636  (a  small  Volume,  or  Pamphlet,  London,  1637). 


27G  Tin;  ji.uiknzullerxs  in  braxdexiuki;.  h--<-k  !ii. 

1U20-164U. 

in  the  ultimate  stages  of  the  struggle,  when  starvation  had 
become  the  im'tliod  —  lirandenburg  fell  to  be  the  itrincipal 
theatre  of  conflict,  where  all  forms  of  the  dismal  were  at  their 
height.  In  KJ.'iS,  three  years  after  that  precious  "  I'eace  of 
Prag,"  the  Swedes  (Banier  I'er.siis  Gallas)  starving  out  the 
Imperialists  in  those  Northwestern  jiarts,  the  ravages  of  the 
starving  Gallas  and  his  Imi)erialists  excelled  all  precedent; 
and  the  "famine  about  Tangerraiinde  had  risen  so  high  that 
men  ate  human  flesh,  nay  human  creatures  ate  their  own  chil- 
dren. "  ^     "  Que  /(lire  ;  Us  out  des  caiioiis!  " 


CTIAITKH    XVTI. 


DUCHY    OF    JAOERXDORF. 


This  unfortunate  George  Wilhelm  failed  in  getting  Pom- 
mern  when  due ;  Tommern,  firmly  held  by  the  Swedes,  was 
far  from  him.  lint  that  was  not  the  only  loss  of  territory 
lie  had.  Jiigerndorf,  —  we  have  heard  of  Johann  George  of 
.Tiigcrndorf,  Uncle  of  this  George  Wilhelm,  how  old  Joachim 
Friedrich  put  him  into  Jiigerndorf,  long  since,  wlien  it  fell 
home  to  the  Electoral  House.  Jiigerndorf  is  now  lost;  Jo- 
hann George  is  under  Reirhs-Arht  (Pan  of  Empire),  ever 
since  the  Winter-Kiujj's  explosion,  and  the  thunder-bolts  that 
followed ;  and  wanders  landless  ;  —  nay  he  is  long  since  dead, 
and  has  six  feet  of  earth  for  a  territory,  far  away  in  Tran- 
sylvania, or  the  lilesen-Gehlrge  (Giant  Mountains)  somewhere. 
Concerning  whom  a  word  now. 

Duhe  of  Jiigerndorf  ,  Elector  s  Uncle^  U  put  under  Ban. 

Johann   George,  a   frank-hearted   valiant   man,   concerning 
whom  only   good   actions,   and   no   bad   one,   are   on   record, 
had   notable   troubles   in   the  world ;   bad   troubles   to  begin 
1  1638  :  Tanli,  iv.  60t. 


CHAI-.  XVII.  DUCHY   OF  JAGERNDORF.  277 

iGa<»-i(jio. 

with,  and  worse  to  end  in.  lie  was  second  Son  of  Kurfiirst 
Joacliiui  Friedrich,  who  had  meant  liiiu  for  the  Church.* 
The  young  fellow  was  Coadjutor  of  Strasburg,  almost  from 
the  time  of  getting  into  short-clothes.  He  was  then,  still 
very  young,  elected  Bishop  there  (1592);  Bishop  of  Stras- 
burg, —  but  only  by  the  Protestant  part  of  the  Canons ;  the 
Catholic  part,  unable  to  submit  longer,  and  thinking  it  a 
good  time  for  revolt  against  a  Protestant  population  and 
obstinately  heterodox  majority,  elected  another  Bishop,  — 
one''" Karl  of  the  House  of  Lorraine;''  and  there  came  to  be 
dispute,  and  came  even  to  be  fighting  needed.  Fighting ; 
which  prudent  Papa  would  not  enter  into,  except  faintly 
at  second-hand,  through  the  Anspach  Cousins,  or  others  that 
were  in  the  humor.  Troublesome  times  for  the  young  man ; 
which  lasted  a  dozen  years  or  more.  At  last  a  Bargain  was 
made  (1G04) ;  Protestant  and  Catholic  Canons  sjjlitting  the 
ditference  in  some  way;  and  the  House  of  Lorraine  paying 
Johann  George  a  great  deal  of  money  to  go  home  again.* 
Poor  Johann  George  came  out  of  it  in  that  way ;  not  second- 
best,  think  several. 

He  was  then  (IGOG)  put  into  Jagerndorf,  which  had  just 
fallen  vacant ;  our  excellent  fat  friend,  George  Friedrich  of 
Anspach,  Administrator  of  Preussen,  having  lately  died,  and 
left  it  vacant,  as  we  saw.  George  Friedrich's  death  yielded 
line  apanages,  three  of  them  in  all :  first  Anspach,  second, 
liaireuth,  and  this  third  of  Jagerndorf  for  a  still  younger 
Brother.  There  Avas  still  a  fourth  younger  Brother,  Uncle 
of  George  Wilhelm ;  Archbishop  of  Magdeburg  this  one ; 
who  also,  as  we  have  seen,  got  into  Relths-Arht,  into  deep 
trouble  in  the  Thirty- Years  AVar.  He  was  in  Tilly's  thrice- 
murderous  Storm  of  IMagdeburg  (10th  May,  1631) ;  was  cap- 
tured, tumbled  about  by  the  wild  soldiery,  and  nearly  killed 
there.  Poor  man,  with  his  mitre  and  rochets  left  in  such  a 
state!  In  the  end  he  even  became  Catholic,  —  from  convic- 
tion, as  was  evident,  and  bewilderment  of  mind  ;  —  and  lived 

1  1577-1624:  Rentsch,  p.  486. 

2  (Eta-res  comjdetcs  de  Voltaire,  97  vols.  (Paris,  1825-18.32),  xxxiii.  284.— 
Kohler  (Reichs-Hist"rip,  p.  487)  gives  the  autlieutic  particulars. 


'■itS    THE  IloIIENZOLLEliNS   IN    IJliANDENlU'RG.   B,ok  JM. 

in  Austria  on  a  pension;  occasionally  publishing  polemifal 
j)ainpliK'ts.'  — 

As  to  Johann  George,  he  much  repaired  and  Ix^autitied  the 
Castli'  of  Jiigerndorf,  says  Keutsch :  but  he  unloitunately  went 
ahead  into  the  AVintei-King's  atlventure;  which,  in  that  sad 
battle  of  the  Weissenlxn-g,  made  total  shipwreck  of  itself, 
drawing  Johann  George  and  much  else  along  with  it.  Johann 
George  was  straightway  tyrannously  put  to  the  Ban,  forfeited 
of  life  and  lands:"  Johann  George  disowned  the  said  IJan  ; 
stood  out  tiereely  for  self  and  Winter-King;  and  did  good 
lighting  in  the  Silesian  strongholds  and  mountain-passes : 
but  was  forced  to  seek  tenipor.iry  shelter  in  Siritcndiirf/on 
(Transylvania) ;  ami  died  far  away,  in  a  year  or  two  (l(il'4), 
while  returning  to  try  it  again.  Sleeps,  I,  think,  in  the 
'*  Jablunka  Piuss  ;  "  the  dumb  Giant-Mount;iiu8  (^Illescn-Gcbirge) 
shrouding  up  his  sad  shi]iwreck  and  him. 

Jiigerndorf  was  thus  seized  by  Ferdinand  11.  of  the  House 
of  Ilapsburg;  and  though  it  way  ctmtrary  to  all  law  that  the 
Kaiser  should  keep  it,  —  i)oor  Johann  George  having  left  Sons 
very  inntK*ent  of  treason,  and  Brothers,  ami  an  Electoral 
Nephew,  very  innocent ;  to  whom,  by  old  compacts  and  new, 
the  Heritage  in  defect  of  him  was  to  fall,  —  neither  Kai.ser 
Ferdinantl  II.  nor  Kaiser  Ferdinand  III.  nor  any  Kaiser 
would  let  go  the  hold ;  but  kept  Jiigerntlorf  fa.st  clenched, 
deaf  to  all  pleadings,  and  monitions  of  gods  or  men.  Till 
at  length,  in  the  fourth  generation  afterwards,  one  "  Fried  rich 
the  Second,''  not  unknown  to  us,  —  a  sharp  little  man,  little 
in  stature,  but  large  in  faculty  and  renown,  wTio  is  now  called 
"Frederick  the  Great,"  —  clutched  hold  of  the  Imperial  fist 
(so  to  speak),  seizing  his  opportunity  in  1740 ;  and  so  wrenched 
and  twisted  said  close  fist,  that  not  only  Jiigerndorf  drojtju'd 
out  of  it,  but  the  whole  of  Silesia  along  with  Jiigerndorf, 
there  being  other  claims  withal.  And  the  account  tens  at 
last  settled,  with  compound  interest,  —  as  in  fact  such  ac- 
counts arc  sure  to  be,  one  way  or  other.  And  so  we  leave 
Johann  George  among  the  dumb  Giant-Mountains  again. 

1  15S7;  1628;  1665  (Rentsch,  pp.  905-910). 

2  22d  January,  1621  (Kiihler,  licichs-FfiMorie,  p.  518:  and  rectify  Hiibner, 

f    !"><) 


Chap.  XVIIL     KURFURST   FRIEDRICII   WILIIELM.  279 

1(>40-1G88. 


CIIAiai<:K  XVIII. 

FRIEDRICH     WILIIELM,     THE    GREAT     KURFURST,     ELEYENTH     OF 

THE    SKIMES. 

liRAXPEXRURo  had  again  sunk  very  low  under  the  Tenth 
Ek'i'tor,  in  the  unutterabh-  troubles  i>f  the  times,  lint  it  was 
gU)riously  raised  up  again  by  his  Son  Frii-drich  Willudin,  wh<j 
succeeded  in  1G40.  This  is  he  wlioiu  they  call  the  "  Great 
Elector  (Crosse  Kur/iirst) ; "  of  whom  there  is  much  writing 
and  ci'lebrating  in  I'russiau  Books.  As  for  the  ejjithet,  it  is 
not  uncommon  among  petty  Ge'-man  populations,  and  many 
times  doi'S  not  mean  too  much:  thus  Ma.\  of  liavaria,  with 
liis  Jesuit  Lambkins  and  IIy;\cinths,  is,  by  Bavarians,  called 
"  Ma.ximiliiui  the  Great."  Friedrich  Wilhelm,  both  by  his 
intrinsic  qualities  and  the  success  he  met  with,  deserves  it 
Ivtter  than  most.  His  success,  if  we  look  where  he  started 
and  where  he  ended,  was  beyond  that  of  any  other  man  in 
his  day.  He  found  Brandenburg  annihilated,  and  he  left 
Brandenburg  sound  and  flourishing ;  a  great  countrj^  or  already 
on  the  way  towards  greatness.  Undoubtedly  a  most  rapid, 
clear-eyed,  active  man.  There  was  a  stroke  in  him  swift  as 
lightning,  well-aimed  mostly,  and  of  a  respectable  weight 
withal ;  which  shattered  asunder  a  whole  world  of  impedi- 
ments for  him,  by  assiduous  repetition  of  it  for  fifty  years.^ 

There  hardly  ever  came  to  sovereign  power  a  young  man  of 
twenty  under  more  distressing,  hopeless-looking  circumstances. 
Political  significance  Brandenburg  had  none ;  a  mere  Protes- 
tant appendage  dragged  about  by  a  Papist  Kaiser.  His 
Father's  Prime-Minister,  as  we  have  seen,  was  in  the  interest 
of  his  enemies;  not  Brandenburg's  servant,  but  Austria's. 
The  very  Commandants   of  his  Fortresses,  Commandant  of 

1   1620;   1640;   1688. 


280  Tin:  huiilxzullluns  in  r.UANDKNuriK;.  h.m,k  hi. 

l(i4U-lliH8. 

Spandau  more  especially,  refused  Ut  oU\v  Fiiedriih  "Wilheliii, 
oil  his  accession ;  "  were  bound  to  ol)ey  the  Kaiser  in  the 
first  phu'e."  He  luul  to  proceed  softly  as  well  lus  swiftly  ; 
with  the  most  drlicate  hand  to  get  him  of  Spandau  by  the 
collar,  and  put  him  under  lock-and-key,  him  as  a  warning 
to  others. 

For  twenty  years  p;u>t,  15randenl)urg  had  been  scoured  by 
hostile  armies,  which,  esptvially  the  Kaiser's  part  of  which, 
committed  outnigcs  new  in  human  history.  In  a  year  or  two 
hence,  lirandenburg  became  again  tlu'  theatre  of  business; 
Austrian  Gallas  advancing  thitlicr  again  (1(>44),  with  intent 
"to  shut  up  Torstcnson  an<l  his  Swedes  in  Jutland,"  where 
they  had  been  chastising  oKl  Christian  IV..  now  meddlesome 
again,  for  the  last  time,  and  never  a  gootl  neighbor  to  Sweden. 
Ciallas  couhl  by  no  means  do  what  he  int^Muleil ;  on  tlie  con- 
trary, he  hail  to  run  from  Torstenson,  what  feet  could  do; 
was  hunteil,  he  and  his  MrnMh--lirvder  (lieautiful  inventors 
of  the  "Marauding"  Art),  "till  t!e*y  ]»r»'tty  much  all  died 
(crrjiirfcn),"  says  Kiihler.*  No  great  loss  to  societ}',  the  death 
of  these  Artists;  but  we  can  fancy  what  their  life,  and 
esp'cially  what  the  jtrocess  of  their  dying,  may  have  cost 
IMM)r  r»randenburg  again  I  — 

I'riedrieh  Wilhelm's  aim,  in  this  as  in  other  emergencies, 
w;us  sun-<'lear  to  himself,  but  fc»r  ni«»st  part  dim  to  everylMidy 
else.  Me  had  to  walk  very  warily,  Sweden  on  one  hand  of 
him,  suspicious  Kaiser  on  the  other;  he  had  to  wear  sem- 
blances, to  be  ready  with  eva.sive  words ;  and  a<lvance  noise- 
lessly by  many  circuits.  More  delicate  oj>eration  could  n<it 
be  imagined.  But  arlvance  he  did  ;  advance  and  arrive.  Witli 
extraordinary  talent,  diligence  and  felicity  the  young  man 
wound  himself  out  of  this  first  fatal  iMjsition  ;  got  those 
foreign  Armies  pushed  out  of  his  Country,  and  kept  them 
out.  His  first  concern  had  l>een  to  find  some  vestige  of 
revenue,  to  put  that  upon  a  clear  footing;  and  by  loans  or 
otherwise  to  scrape  a  little  ready  money  together.  On  the 
strength  of  which  a  small  body  of  soldiers  could  be  collected 
alx^ut  him,   and  drilled   into   real   a'lility  to   fight  and  obey. 

>   Rdrhi-Hislorif,  p.  5:>f> ;   P.-\uli.  v    24. 


CiiAr.  Win.     KURFURST   FRTEDRICII    WILIIEL.M.  281 

1644. 

This  us  a  basis;  on  this  followed  all  manner  of  things;  free- 
dom from  Swedish-Austrian  invasions,  as  the  tii-st  thing. 

Ho  was  himself,  as  ajjpetired  by  and  by,  a  tighter  of  tho 
first  quality,  when  it  came  to  that ;  but  never  was  willing  to 
fight  if  he  could  help  it.  Preferred  rather  to  shift,  manceuvre 
and  negotiate ;  which  he  did  in  a  most  vigilant,  adroit  and 
masterly  manner.  But  by  degrees  lu^  had  grown  to  have,  and 
could  maintain  it,  an  Army  of  L'4,000  men  ;  among  the  best 
troops  then  in  being.  With  or  without  his  will,  he  was  in  all 
tKe  great  Wars  of  his  time,  —  the  time  of  Louis  XIV.,  who 
kimlli'd  lOurope  four  times  over,  thrice  in  our  Kurfiirst's  day. 
The  Kurfiirst's  Dominions,  a  long  straggling  country,  reach- 
ing from  Memel  to  Wesel,  could  hardly  keep  out  of  the  way 
of  an}'  war  tliat  might  rise.  He  made  him-^elf  availal)le, 
never  against  the  good  cause  of  Protestantism  and  (xermau 
Freedt^n,  yet  always  in  the  place  and  way  where  his  own  l>est 
advantage  w;is  to  be  luul.  Louis  XIV.  had  oft(>n  much  need 
of  him;  still  oftener,  and  more  pressingly,  had  Kaiser  Leo- 
pold, tho  little  (Tentleman  "  in  scarlet  stockings,  with  a  red 
feather  in  his  hat,"  whom  Mr.  Savage  used  to  see  majestically 
walking  about,  with  Austrian  lip  that  said  nothing  at  all.^ 
His  L*4,(U)0  excellent  fighting-men,  thrown  in  at  the  right  time, 
were  often  a  thing  that  could  turn  the  balance  in  great  ques- 
tions. They  required  to  be  allowed  for  at  a  high  rate, — 
which  he  well  knew  how  to  adjust  himself  for  exacting  and 
securing  always. 

'  A  Coiiiftleal  riistory  of  Germany,  by  Mr.  Savage  (8vo,  London,  1702), 
p.  553.  Who  this  Mr.  Savage  was,  we  have  no  trace.  Prefixed  to  the  vol- 
ume is  the  Portrait  of  a  solid  Gentleman  of  forty  ;  gloomily  polite,  with  ample 
wig  and  cravat,  —  in  all  likelihood  some  studious  subaltern  Diplomati.st  in  the 
Succession  War.  His  little  Book  is  very  lean  and  barren  :  but  faithfully  com- 
piled,—  and  might  have  some  illumination  in  it,  where  utter  darkness  is  so 
prevalent.  Most  likely,  Addison  picked  his  story  of  the  Siefie  of  Weinsberq 
("Women  carrying  out  their  Husbands  on  their  back,"  —  one  of  his  best 
Spectators)  out  of  this  poor  Book. 


2.^2    THE   IIUIIENZOLLERNS    IN    iniANUENBUnG.    B<»"k  I". 

1G4*)-1G88. 

What  became  of  Pommern  at  the   Peace  ;  final   Glance 
into    Cleve-Jullch. 

"When  the  Peace  of  Westphalia  (1G4S)  concluded  that 
Tliirty-Vears  Conflagration,  and  swept  the  ashes  of  it  into 
order  a^ain,  Kriedrich  Wilhelin's  ri;j;ht  to  I'oniniern  was  admits 
ted  by  (>verylH)dy  ;  and  well  insisted  on  by  himself:  but  ri;^dit 
liatl  to  yield  to  reason  of  state,  and  he  could  not  get  it.  The 
S\v('(l»'.s  insisti'd  on  their  ex|>enses ;  the  Swedes  heltl  Pommern, 
had  all  aloni,'  held  it, —  in  j»awn,  they  said,  for  their  exiwuses. 
Nothing  for  it  but  to  give  the  Swedes  the  better  half  of  I'om- 
mern.  /'»>rt'-l*ommern  (so  they  call  it, ''Swedish  Pomerania  " 
thenceforth),  which  lies  next  the  Sea;  this,  with  some  Towns 
and  cuttings  over  and  alM)ve,  was  Sweden's  share :  Frie<lri«h 
Wilhtdm  liad  to  jtut  tip  with  //iVi^^r-l'ommern,  docked  furth»>r- 
niore  of  the  Town  of  Stfttin,  and  of  other  valuable  cuttings, 
in  favor  of  Sweden.  Much  to  Friedrich  Wilhelm's  grief  and 
just  anger,  couhl  he  have  lieljied  it. 

They  gave  liim  Three  secularized  Pishoprics,  Magdeburg, 
Hall)erstiult,  Minden,  with  other  small  remnant,s,  for  comi>en- 
sation ;  and  he  had  to  be  content  with  these  for  the  \  resent. 
But  ho  never  gave  up  the  idea  of  Pommern  ;  much  of  the 
effort  of  his  life  was  s|>ent  \i|)on  recovering  Fore-Pommern  ; 
thrice-oager  upon  that,  whenever  lawful  opix)rtunity  offered. 
To  no  puriKJse  then ;  he  never  could  recover  Swedish  Pom- 
mern ;  only  his  late  descendants,  and  that  by  slowish  degrees, 
could  recover  it  all.  Reatlers  remember  that  Burgermeister  of 
Stettin,  with  the  helmet  and  sword  flung  into  the  grave  and 
picked  out  again  ;  —  and  can  judge  whether  Brandenburg  got 
its  good  luck  quite  by  lying  in  Ijed  I  — 

Once,  and  once  only,  he  had  a  voluntary  purpose  towards 
"War,  and  it  remained  a  purpose  only.  Soon  after  the  Peace 
of  "Westphalia,  old  Pfalz-Xeuburg,  the  same  who  got  the 
slap  on  the  face,  went  into  tyrannous  proceedings  against  the 
Protestant  part  of  his  subjects  in  Jidich-Cleve  ;  who  called 
to  Friedrich  "Wilhelm  for  help.  Friedrich  "Wilhelm,  a  zealous 
Protestant,  made  remonstrances,  retaliations :  ere  long  the 
thought  struck  him,  "  Suppose,  backed  by  the  Dutch,  we  threw 


CiiAi-.  XVIII.     KLKFUKST    FKIEDKlL'II    W  ll.Ili:i..M.  288 

1G55-16G0. 

out  this  fantastic  old  gentleman,  his  Papistries,  uiul  j)ri'tended 
claims  and  self,  clear  out  of  it  ?  "  This  was  Friedrich  Wil- 
helm's  thought ;  and  he  suddenly  marched  troops  into  the  Ter- 
ritory, with  that  view.  But  Europe  was  in  alarm,  the  Dutch 
grew  faint:  Friedrich  Wilhelm  saw  it  would  not  do.  He 
had  a  conference  with  old  I'falz-Neuburg :  "  Young  gentle- 
man, we  remember  how  your  Grandfather  made  free  with  us 
and  our  august  countenance!  Nevertheless  we  —  "  In  tine, 
the  ''  statistic  of  Treaties ''  was  increiised  by  One  ;  and  there 
the  matter  rested  till  calmer  times. 

In  1GG(),  ;i8  already  said,  an  effective  Partition  of  these  liti- 
gated Territories  was  accomplished :  Prussia  to  have  the 
Duchy  of  Cleve-Proper,  the  Counties  of  Mark  and  Ravens- 
burg,  with  (ither  I'atches  and  Pertinents ;  Neuburg,  what  was 
tlie  better  share,  to  have  Jiilich  Duchy  and  Berg  Duchy. 
Furthermore,  if  either  of  the  Lines  failed,  in  no  sort  was 
a  collatenU  to  be  admitted  ;  but  Brandt-nburg  was  to  inherit 
Neuburg,  or  Neuburg  Brandenburg,  as  the  c;ise  might  be.*  A 
clear  Barg;iin  this  at  List ;  and  in  the  times  that  had  come,  it 
jaoved  executiible  so  far.  But  if  the  reader  fancies  the  Law- 
suit was  at  last  out  in  this  way,  he  will  be  a  simple  reader ! 
In  the  days  of  our  little  Fritz,  the  Line  of  Pfalz-Neuburg  was 
evidently  ending ;  but  that  Brandenburg  and  not  a  collateral 
should  succeed  it,  there  lay  the  quarrel,  —  open  still,  as  if  it 
had  never  been  shut ;  and  we  shall  hear  enough  about  it  I  — 

The    Great  Kurfursfs    Wars  :  what  he  achieved  in    War 

and  Peace. 

Friedrich  Wilhelm's  first  actual  appearance  in  War,  Pulish- 
Swedish  War  (1655-lGGO),  wiis  involuntary  in  the  highest 
degree  ;  forced  upon  him  for  the  sake  of  his  Preussen,  which 
bade  fair  to  be  lost  or  ruined,  without  blame  of  his  or  its. 
Nevertheless,  here  too  he  made  his  benefit  of  the  affair.  The 
big  King  of  Sweden  had  a  standing  quarrel  with  his  big 
Cousin  of  Poland,  which  broke  out  into  hot  War ;  little  Preus- 
sen lay  between  them,  and  was  like  to  be  crushed  in  the  col- 

1  Pauli,  V.  120-129. 


284    THE  llUilENZuLLEUN.s   IN    ISKANDENlUlJii.    li.' .k  IK. 

lii4<>-ltif«M. 

lision.  Swedish  King  was  Kai'l  Giistav,  Christina's  Cousin, 
Chark'S  Twelfth's  GranUfatber ;  a  great  and  mighty  man,  lion 
of  the  North  in  his  time:  I'olisli  King  was  on»'  Julin  Casimir; 
cliivalroiis  enougli,  and  with  chuids  ot  forward  rt)lish  chivalry 
about  him,  glittering  with  barkirie  gold.  Fn-deriek  III., 
Danish  King  for  the  time  In-ing,  he  al.so  was  mneb  involved 
in  the  thing.  Fain  would  Friedrieb  Wilhelm  have  kept  out 
of  it,  but  be  could  not.  Karl  Gustav  as  good  as  forced  him 
to  join  :  be  joined;  fought  along  with  Karl  liust^iv  an  illus- 
trious Battle  ;  *'  iJattle  of  Warsaw,"  three  days  long  (liii-iiOtb 
July,  IGTiO),  on  the  skirts  of  Warsaw,  —  crowds  "  looking  from 
the  uppt  r  windows  "  there  ;  Polish  chivalry,  broken  at  last, 
going  like  chaff  upon  the  wiuds,  aiid  John  Ccisimir  nearly 
ruined. 

Sb(»rtly  after  which,  Friedrieb  Willielm,  who  bad  shone 
niuib  in  the  Hattle,  changed  siiles.  An  inconsisttMit,  treiuher- 
ous  man  ?  Perhaps  not,  O  reader ;  jierbaps  a  man  ailvancing 
"in  circuits,"  the  only  way  be  has;  spirally,  face  now  to  east, 
now  to  west,  with  bis  own  rcason;d)Ii'  private  .lim  sun-clear  to 
him  all  the  while  ? 

John  Casimir  agreed  to  give  up  the  "llouiagi'  of  Preussen  " 
for  this  service  ;  a  grand  prize  for  Fric<lrich  Wilhelui.'  What 
the  Teutscb  Hitters  strove  for  in  vain,  and  lost  their  existence 
in  striving  for,  the  shifty  Kurfiirst  has  now  got:  Ducal  Prussia, 
which  is  also  called  E;ust  J'russi;^  is  now  a  free  sovereignty, — 
and  will  become  as  "Koyal"  as  the  other  Polish  part.  Or  i)er- 
b:ips  even  more  so,  in  the  C(.urse  of  time!  —  K;u-1  Gustav,  in 
a  high  frame  of  miml,  informs  the  KurlUrst,  that  he  has  him 
on  bis  books,  and  will  pay  the  debt  one  day  I 

A  dangerous  debtor  in  such  matters,  this  Karl  GustnT.  In 
these  same  months,  busy  with  the  Danish  part  of  tiie  Contro- 
vei-sy,  be  was  doing  a  feat  of  war,  which  set  all  Eurojte  in  as- 
tonishment. In  January,  1658,  Karl  Gustav  marches  bis  Army, 
horse,  foot  and  artillery,  to  the  extent  of  twenty  thousand, 
across  the  R:iltic  ice,  and  takes  an  Island  without  shipping,  — 
Island  of  Fiinen,  across  the  Little  Belt ;  three  miles  of  ice ; 

1  Treaty  uf  LabLau,  10th  NovemWr.  165G  (Pauli,  v.  73-75) ;  20th  November 
(Stenzel,  iv.  12S,  —  who  always  lues  New  HiifU). 


iJiiAj".  will.      KUKrlKST   ntlEDKIl  11    WlLllLLM.  Ii85 

ii;oo. 

and  a  i»ai t  oi  tlu-  sea  vjH-n,  wliicli  lias  to  he  crossi'd  on  iJuuks. 
2Siiy,  torward  from  Fiiuen,  when  once  there,  lie  achieves  ten 
vhole  miles  more  of  ice;  and  takes  Zealand  itself,-  —  to  the 
v. under  of  all  mankind.  An  inij»erious,  stern-browed,  swii'L- 
strikiug  nuui ;  wlio  had  dreamed  of  a  new  Goth  Empire  :  The 
mean  llyjioerites  and  Frihbh'S  of  the  South  to  be  eoereed  at,'ain 
by  noble  Morse  valor,  and  tau;,dit  a  new  lesson.  ILuj  bten 
known  to  lay  his  hand  on  his  sword  wliile  apprisiiig  an  Am- 
bassador (Dutch  lligh-Mightint'ss)  what  his  royal  intenticms 
were  :  '•  Mot  the  sale  or  jiurehase  of  groceries,  observe  you, 
Sir !  My  aims  go  liii,dier  !  "  —  Charles  Twelfth's  Grandfather, 
and  somewhat  the  same  ty|)e  of  man. 

lint  Karl  Gustav  dird,  short  while  after ; '^  left  his  big  wide- 
raging  Mortht'rn  Controversy  to  collapse  in  what  way  it  could. 
Sweilen  and  the  ligliting-jurties  made  their  '•  Peace  of  Oliva '' 
(Abbey  of  Uliva,  mar  Dantzig,  Ist  May,  Uk>0)  j  and  this  of 
I'reusseu  Wiu>  nitirieil,  iu  all  form,  among  tlie  other  points. 
No  homage  more;  nothing  now  alxive  Ducal  Prussia  but  the 
Heavens;  and  great  times  coming  for  iL  This  was  one  of  the 
8uceessfiilest  strokes  of  business  ever  done  by  Friedrich  Wil- 
helm  ;  wlio  hiul  been  ft)rced,  by  sheer  compulsion,  to  embark 
in  that  big  game.  —  **  Itoyal  Prussia,''  the  Western  or  Fulisk 
Prussia  :  this  too,  as  all  Newspapers  know,  has,  in  our  times, 
gone  the  same  roau  as  the  other.  Which  probably,  after  all, 
it  may  have  had,  iu  Nature,  some  tendency  to  do  ■'  Cut  away, 
for  rea-sons,  by  the  Polish  sword,  in  that  Battle  of  Tanuenberg, 
long  since ;  and  then,  also  for  reasons,  cut  back  again  !  That 
is  the  fact; — not  unexampled  in  human  History. 

i)ld  Johann  Ciisimir,  not  long  alter  that  Peace  of  Oliva, 
getting  tired  of  his  unruly  Polish  chivalry  and  their  ways, 
abdicated  :  —  retired  to  Paris  ;  and  '•  lived  much  with  Ninon 
de  TEiielos  and  her  circle,"  for  the  rest  of  his  life.  He  used  to 
complain  of  his  Polish  chivalry,  that  there  was  no  solidity  in 
them ;  nothing  but  outside  glitter,  with  tumult  and  anarchic 
noise :  fatal  want  of  one  essential  talent,  the  talent  of  Obey- 
ing ;  and  has  been  heard  to  prophesy  that  a  glorious  Republic, 

1  Ilolberfx's  Danemarkische  Reicks-IJistorie,  pp.  40C-409. 

2  13th  f  ebruar/,  16G0,  age  38. 


286   THE  iiuiiKN/j>LLi:i:.Ns  I.N  15i:an1)i:ntu  uc;.  it—K  m. 

persisting  in  such  i-uurjies,  wuuUl  arrive  at  results  whicii  would 
surprise  it. 

Onwaid  Inuu  this  time,  Fricdrieh  Wilhelni  figures  in  the 
world ;  public  men  waUdiing  his  procedure ;  Kings  anxious  to 
seeurt-  him,  —  Dutch  priutsellers  sticking  up  his  rortraits  fur 
a  hero-worshipping  I'uhlic^  Fighting  hero,  had  the  Tublic 
known  it,  was  not  his  essentiiU  elianvcter,  though  he  had  to 
li;4ht  a  great  deal.  II«?  \v;us  essentially  an  Industrial  man; 
great  in  orgiuiizing,  regulating,  in  constraining  chaotiit  heaj>s 
to  become  cosmic  for  him.  He  drains  lH>g8,  settles  e4)lonies  in 
the  wasU'-jihwes  of  his  l>omini«)us,  cuts  canals;  unweiuiedly 
cncouniges  trade  and  work.  The  Fr'u-drirh-WtUuhns  Cmml, 
which  still  carries  tomuige  from  the  ^Uh-r  t*>  tke  Spree,'  is  a 
monument  of  his  zeal  in  this  way;  creditiible,  with  the  means 
he  hail.  To  the  poor  French  I'rotestiuits,  in  the  Ed ict-of -Nantes 
Affair,  he  was  like  an  express  lienelit  of  Heaven :  one  Helper 
appointeil,  to  whom  tin*  help  itself  was  proliUible.  He  muniti- 
cently  welcomed  them  to  iJrandt-nburg;  showed  really  a  noble 
piety  and  hunuin  i)ity,  as  well  as  judgment ;  nor  did  Branden- 
burg ;uid  he  want  their  rewanl.  Some  li(>.(XM)  nindde  French 
souls,  evidently  t»f  the  best  French  <piality,  found  a  home 
there  ;  —  ma<le  '*  waste  sands  about  Berlin  into  jiotherb  gar- 
dens ;  "  and  in  the  spiritual  Brandenburg,  too,  did  something  of 
horticulture,  whi«'h  is  still  noticeable.* 

Certainly  this  Elector  was  one  of  the  shiftiest  of  men.  Not 
an  unjust  man  either.  A  jiious,  Gotl-fearing  man  rather,  stanch 
to  his  FrotesUmlism  and  his  Bible ;  not  unjust  by  any  means, 
—  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  by  any  means  thick-skinned  in  his 
interpretings  of  justice:  Fair-play  to  myself  always;  or  occa- 
sionally even  the  Height  of  Fair-play  !  On  the  whole,  by  con- 
stant energy,  vigilance,  adroit  activity,  by  an  ever-ready  insight 
and  audacity  to  seize  the  passing  fact  by  its  right  handle,  he 

1  Executed,  1662-1668;  fifteen  English  miles  long  (Biiaching,  Erdbeschrei- 
bung,  vi.  2193). 

'  Ermau  (weak  Bi<i2mi)hcr  of  Qnocn  Sophie-Charlotte,  already  ritc<l),  3/^ 
moires  pour  s^rrir  a  I'llistoire  des  Rifugi^s  Fran^ais  dans  les  ElaU  du  Hoi  de 
Prusse  (Berlin,  1782-1794),  8  tt.  8vo. 


CiiAj-.  XVlll.      KURFlJRST   FKlEDKlCli   WILIIEL.M.  2«T 

1075. 

louglit  his  way  well  in  the  world ;  left  Braudenhurg  a  flourish- 
ing and  greatly  increased  Country,  and  his  e»wn  name  iaiuous 
enough. 

A  thick-set  stalwart  figure  ;  with  brisk  eyes,  and  high 
strong  irregularly  Koman  nose.  Good  bronze  Statue  of  hiui, 
by  Sehliiter,  once  a  famed  man,  still  rides  on  the  Lange-Iiruike 
( Long-Iiridge)  at  Berlin;  and  his  Portrait,  in  huge  frizi^h-d 
Louis-Quatorze  wig,  is  frequently  met  with  in  German  Gal- 
le/its.  Collectors  of  Dutch  Prints,  too,  know  him  :  here  a 
gallant,  eagle-featured  little  gentlt-man,  brisk  in  the  smiles  of 
youth,  with  plumes,  with  truncheon,  caprioling  on  his  war- 
chargt-r,  view  of  tents  in  the  disUmce ;  —  there  a  sedate,  pon- 
derous, wrinkly  old  man,  eyes  slightly  i)uckered  (eyes  bu^kr 
than  mouth) ;  a  face  well-ploughed  by  Time,  and  not  found 
unfruitful ;  one  of  the  largi-st,  most  laborious,  potent  faces  (in 
an  ocean  of  circumambient  periwig)  to  l»e  met  with  in  that 
Centur}'.'  There  are  many  Histories  aljout  him,  too;  but  they 
are  not  comfortable  to  read."  He  also  hai»  wanted  a  sacred 
Poet ;  and  found  only  a  bewildering  Dry;isdust. 

His  Two  grand  Fiats  that  dwell  in  the  Prussian  memory 
are  perhaps  none  of  his  greatest,  but  were  of  a  kind  to  strike 
the  imagination.  They  both  relate  to  what  was  the  central 
problem  of  his  life,  —  the  recovery  of  Pommern  from  the 
Swedes.  Exploit  First  is  the  famed  "  Battle  of  Fehrhdlln 
(Ferry  of  Bellftv<),"  fought  on  the  18th  June,  1G75.  Fehrbellin 
is  an  inconsiderable  Town  still  standing  in  those  peaty  regions, 
some  five-and-thirty  miles  northwest  of  Berlin ;  and  had  for 
ages  plied  its  poor  Ferry  over  the  oily-looking,  brown,  sluggish 
stream  called  Khiu,  or  Rhein  in  those  parts,  without  the  least 


'  Both  Prints  are  Dutch  ;  the  Younger,  mv  copy  of  the  Younger,  has  lost 
the  Engraver's  Name  ( Kurfiirst'g  age  is  twenty-seven) ;  the  Elder  is  by  Musson, 
1683,  when  Friedrich  Wilhelm  was  sixty -three. 

-  G.  D.  Geyler,  Zeievi  und  TfuUtn  Friedrich  WUhelms  des  Grofisen  (Frankfort 
and  Leipzig,  1703),  folio.  Franz  Horn,  Das  Leben  Friedrich  Wilhelms  des 
Grossen  (Berlin,  1814).  P:iuli.  Stnats-Geschichte,  Band  v.  (Halle,  1764).  Pufen- 
dorf,  he  rebus  ge^tis  Friderici  WUhelmi  Magni  Electoris  Brandenburgeiisis  Com- 
nerUaria  (Lips,  et  Berol.  1733,  fol.). 


288    TUL   llUliLNZDLLLUNS   IN    IJliANDLNKliai.    ii«'"»»  MI. 

lti4U-lt4W. 

notice  from  mankind,  till  this  fell  out.  It  is  a  jilucc  of  pil- 
grimage to  patriotic  Trussiaus,  ever  since  Friedrich  Wilhelm's 
exploit  tln're.     The  matt<'r  went  thus  :  — 

Friedrich  Williehn  was  lighting,  fai-  south  in  Alsace,  on 
Kaiser  I^o|M>ld*s  side,  in  the  Louis-Kourteentli  War ;  that 
second  one,  which  ended  in  the  treaty  of  Nimwegen.  Doing 
liis  best  there,  —  wlien  the  Swedes,  egged  on  bv  Louis  XIV., 
made  war  u|>on  liim ;  crossed  the  I'omeraniau  marches,  troop 
after  troop,  and  invaded  his  lirandenbur^'  Territory  witli  a 
force  wliich  at  length  amounted  to  some  1(>,(HH»  men.  No  help 
lor  the  moment:  Friedrich  Wilhelm  could  not  be  s|>;iretl  from 
liis  jKJst.  The  Swedes,  who  had  at  lirst  professed  well,  gra«lu- 
ally  went  into  plunder,  roving,  harrying,  at  their  own  will; 
and  a  melancholy  time  they  nuule  of  it  fi»r  Friedricli  Wilhelm 
and  his  People.  Lucky  if  t^mitorary  harm  were  all  tlu?  ill  they 
were  likely  to  do;  lucky  if  —  I  He  sto<Ml  ste;uly,  however;  in 
his  solid  manner,  finishing  tlie  thing  in  hand  first,  since  that 
was  feasible.  He  then  even  retired  into  wint4r-<iuart<'rs,  to 
rest  his  men;  and  seemed  to  have  left  the  Swedish  1G,<HH) 
autocrats  of  the  situation  ;  who  accordingly  went  storming 
nlHuit  at  a  great  rate. 

Not  so,  liowever;  very  fiu-  indeed  froni  so.  Having  rested 
his  men  for  certain  months,  Friedrich  Wilhelm  silently  in 
the  first  days  of  June  (1(375)  gets  them  under  march  again; 
marches,  his  Cavalry  and  he  as  first  instalment,  with  U*st 
sjieed  from  Schweinfurt,'  which  is  on  the  river  Main,  to  Mag- 
deburg; a  distance  of  two  humlred  miles.  At  Magdeburg, 
where  he  rests  three  days,  waiting  for  the  first  hantlful  of  loi>t 
and  a  field-piece  or  two,  he  learns  that  the  Swedes  are  in  three 
])arties  wide  asunder ;  the  middle  ]>arty  of  them  within  forty 
miles  of  him.  I'robably  stronger,  even  this  middle  one,  than 
his  small  body  (of  "  six  thousand  Horse,  twelve  hundred  Foot 
and  three  guns"); — stronger,  but  capable  j»erhaps  of  being 
surprised,  of  being  cut  in  pieces,  before  the  others  can  come 
up  ?  Rathenau  is  the  nearest  skirt  of  this  middle  party  : 
thither  goes  the  Kurfiirst.  softly,  swiftly,  in  the  June  night 
C1^17th  June,  KiT.")) :  gets  into  Rathenau,  by  briak  stratagem  ; 
'  Steniel,  ii.  347. 


•:iiM-   will      ki;KFUU6T    FKlEDlilCll    W  IIJILL.M.  2bU 

luT8. 

tuiablt'S  out  the  Swedish  Horse-retjiment  there,  drive;;  it  back 
towards  I'Vhrbelliu. 

Ih-  himself  follows  hard;  —  swift  riding  enough,  in  the 
summer  night,  through  those  damp  Ilavel  lands,  in  the  old 
Ilohenzollern  f;ishion  :  and  imleed  ohl  Freisack  Castle,  as  it 
chances,  —  Freisack,  scene  of  Dietrich  von  Quitzow  and  //</.-:// 
J'ttj  long  since,  —  is  close  by  !  Follows  hanl,  we  say  :  sti iki's 
in  ui»on  this  midmost  party  (nearly  twic*  his  nunil)er,  but  In- 
fantry for  the  most  jMirt) ;  and  after  tierce  tight,  done  wilh 
gooii  talent  on  Ixjth  sides,  cuts  it  into  utter  ruin,  as  proposed. 
'I'licrcliy  Ih;  has  left  the  Swedish  Army  as  a  nu're  ln-ad  and  tiiil 
u'ithuut  body ;  has  entirely  dcUKdished  the  Swedish  Army.* 
Same  feat  intrinsically  as  that  done  by  Cromwell,  on  Hamilton 
and  the  Scots,  in  ir»4S.  It  was.  so  to  s|H'ak,  the  hust  visit 
Sweden  )>aid  to  Urandenburg,  or  the  last  of  any  consequence; 
and  ended  the  domination  of  the  Swedes  in  those  quarters.  A 
thing  justly  to  l>e  forever  renu'ml>ered  by  Hrandenburg  ; — on 
a  smallish  niodern  scale,  the  Uauuockburn,  Semjiach,  Marathon, 
of  Brandenburg.* 

Exploit  StM'ond  was  four  years  later;  in  some  sort  a  corol- 
lary to  this;  and  a  winding-up  of  the  Swedish  business.  The 
Swedes,  in  farther  proso<;ution  of  their  Lou  is- Fourteenth  si)ecu- 
lation,  had  invatled  Preussen  this  time,  and  were  doing  sad 
havoc  there.  It  was  in  the  ilcail  of  winter,  Christmas,  1G78, 
more  than  four  hundred  miles  off;  and  the  Swedes,  to  say 
nothing  of  their  other  havoc,  were  in  a  case  to  take  Kiinigsljerg, 
and  ruin  I'russin  altogether,  if  not  prevented.  Frietlrich  Wil- 
helm  starts  from  Berlin,  with  the  oiK^ning  Year,  on  his  long 
march;  the  IIorsc-troo]>s  first.  Foot  to  follow  at  their  swiftest ; 
he  himself  (his  Wife,  his  ever-true  '*  Louisa,"  accompanying, 
as  her  wont  was)  travels,  towards  the  end,  at  the  rate  of  "  sixty 
miles  a  day."  He  gets  in  still  in  time,  finds  Kiinigsberg 
unscathed.     Nay  it  is  even  said,  the  Swedes  are  extensively 

>  Stenzcl,  ii.  350-^57. 

2  See  Paali.  v.  161-169  ;  Stenzel.  ii.  3.T5.  340-347,  354  ;  Kaasler,  Athts  des 
pltis  m^moraUes  B-itailUs,  CombtUs  et  Si€<i«-s,  or  At/as  der  merkicurdigsten 
Srhlnrhifji.  Trejftm  und  Belagerunpen  (German  and  French,  CarLsruhe  aiid 
Freilmrc:.  1831),  p  417,  Blatt  02. 

VOL.  v.  It) 


-•.♦U     I'lli:   il(»Hi:NZ(»Ll.Ki:NS    in    lUiANDHNUna..    IkN.K  III. 

falling  sick  ;  liaving,  aftt-r  a  long  ianiinc,  touml  mtinite  "pigs, 
near  Iiisterburg,"  in  those  remote  regions,  ami  iniUilged  in  the 
fresli  ]K>rk  ovcriniu'h. 

1  will  lint  clt'i>(iil)C'  the  subsequent  mana'uvivs,  wliirh  wduM 
interest  nolxxly :  enough  if  I  say  that  on  the  IGth  of  January, 
1(570,  it  ha<l  l)Ccomo  of  tlie  highest  njouu'nt  for  FriiHlrich  Wil- 
lichn  to  grt  from  Carwe  (Villagi'  m-ar  Klbing)  on  the  short*  of 
the  Frisehi'  ll<if.  where  he  was,  through  Kiinigslx^rg,  to  Gilge 
on  the  Citrische  llnf,  where  the  Swedes  are,  —  in  a  niiniiuuni 
of  time.  I)istan<'e,  as  the  erow  tli«'s,  is  alM)ut  a  hundred  miles; 
road,  whieli  skirts  the  two  Hnfs  '  (wide  sluillow  lldn/us,  as 
we  should  name  them),  is  of  rough  quality,  and  naturally 
einuitous.  It  is  ringing  frost  to-day,  and  for  days  b;u'k :  — 
Friedrieh  Wilhelm  hiustily  giithers  all  the  sledges,  all  the  horses 
of  the  ilistrift ;  nutunts  sonu*  four  thous;ind  njen  in  sledges; 
starts,  with  the  sjHM'd  of  light,  in  that  fashion.  Se«»urs  along 
all  day,  and  after  the  intervening  bit  of  land,  again  along; 
awakening  the  ioe-lound  sih'uees.  Gloomy  Fri.sche  llaf,  wrapt 
in  its  Winter  elomU-overlids,  with  its  w;istes  of  tund)led  sand, 
its  iK>or  frost-l>ound  lishing-handets,  pine-hilloeks, — desolate- 
looking,  stern  as  CJret'nland  or  more  so,  says  IJiisehing,  who 
travtdled  there  in  winter-time,'^ — hears  unexiR-etcd  human 
noises,  and  huge  grinding  and  trampling ;  the  four  thousand, 
in  long  fleet  of  sledges,  scouring  across  it,  in  that  manner.  All 
day  they  rush  along.  — out  of  the  rimy  hazes  of  morning  into 
the  olive-colored  clouds  of  evening  again,  —  with  huge  loud- 
grinding  nunble  ; — and  do  arrive  in  time  at  Gilge.  A  notable 
streak  of  things,  shooting  across  those  frozen  solitudes,  in  the 
New-Year,  1G71) ;  —  little  short  of  Karl  Gustav's  feat,  which 
we  heard  of,  in  the  other  or  Danish  end  of  the  Baltic,  twenty 
years  ago,  when  he  took  Islands  without  ships. 

This  Second  Exploit  —  suggested  or  not  by  that  prior  one 
of  Karl  Gustav  on  the  ice — is  still  a  thing  to  be  remembered 
by  Hohenzollerns  and  Prussians.  The  Swedes  were  beaten 
here,  on  Friedrieh  Wilhelm's  rapid  arrival ;  were  driven  into 
disastrous  rapid  retreat  Xorthward ;  which  they  executed  in 

1  Pauli,  V.  21.S-222;  Stcnzol.  ii.  392-^97. 

2  Biiscliuig's  Btilrdge  (llalle,  1789),  vi.  160. 


(•uAP.  xviii.   Kiia  ricsr  fkiedkicu  w  iluli.m.  -i'l 

1075. 

liuiigpr  and  cold  ;  lighting  continually,  like  Northern  bears, 
under  the  grim  sky ;  Friediich  Wilhelm  sticking  to  their 
skirts,  —  holding  by  their  tail,  like  an  angry  bear-ward  with 
steel  whip  in  his  hand.  A  thing  which,  on  the  small  scale, 
reminds  one  of  Napoleon's  experiences.  Not  till  Napoleon's 
huge  ligliting-flight,  a  hundred  and  thirty-four  years  after, 
did  I  read  of  such  a  transaction  in  those  parts.  The  Swedish 
inviision  of  Preussen  has  gone  utterly  to  ruin. 

And  this,  then,  is  the  end  of  Swe»len,  and  its  bad  neighbor- 
hood on  these  shores,  where  it  has  tyrannously  sat  on  our 
skirts  so  long  ?  Swedish  Pommern  the  Elector  alre;uly  had  : 
last  year,  coming  towards  it  ever  since  the  Exploit  of  Fehr- 
bellin,  he  had  invaded  Swedish  I'ommeru  ;  had  besieged  and 
taken  Stettin,  nay  Stralsund  too,  where  Wallenstein  had 
failed  ;  —  cleared  I'ommern  altogether  of  its  Swedish  guests. 
AVho  had  tried  next  in  Preussen,  with  what  luck  we  see.  Of 
Swedish  Pommern  the  Elector  might  now  say  :  "  Surely  it  is 
mine  ;  again  mine,  as  it  long  wiis  ;  well  won  a  second  time, 
since  the  tirst  would  not  do  !  "  Put  no  :  —  Louis  XIV.  proved 
a  gentleman  to  his  Swedes.  Louis,  now  that  the  Peace  of 
Nimwegen  had  come,  and  only  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg 
was  still  in  harness,  said  steadily,  though  anxious  enough  to 
keep  well  with  the  Elector :  "  They  are  my  allies,  these 
Swedes ;  it  was  on  my  bidding  they  invaded  you  :  can  I  leave 
them  in  such  a  jiass  ?  It  must  not  be  !  "  So  Pommern  had 
to  be  given  back.  A  miss  which  was  infinitely  grievous  to 
Friedrich  "Wilhelm.  The  most  victorious  Elector  cannot  hit 
always,  were  his  right  never  so  good. 

Another  miss  which  he  had  to  put  up  with,  in  spite  of  his 
rights,  and  his  good  serNaces,  was  that  of  the  Silesian  Duchies. 
The  Heritage-Fraternity  with  Lieguitz  had  at  length,  in  1G75, 
come  to  fruit.  The  last  Duke  of  Liegnitz  was  dead :  Duchies 
of  Liegnitz,  of  Brieg,  Wohlau,  are  Brandenburg's,  if  there  were 
right  done  !  But  Kaiser  Leopold  in  the  scarlet  stockings  will 
not  hear  of  Heritage-Fraternity.  "  Nonsense  !  "  answers  Kai- 
ser Leopold  :  '*  A  thing  suppressed  at  once,  ages  ago  ;  by  Im- 
perial power  :  flat  zero  of  a  thing  at  this  time  ;  —  and  you,  I 
again  bid  you,  return  me  your  Papers  upon  it !  "     This  latter 


-.•2    Tin:   iiUllKNZuLLEUNs    IN    IMiANDLMU  lit;.    H-.k  111. 

104l»-H)S8. 

iiLt  of  duty  Friedrifh  Willielm  woulil  not  do  ;  l.ut  continued 
insisting.'  "  Jiigenulorf  at  least,  O  Kaiser  of  the  world,'*  said 
he;  " Jiigi'rndtn-i",  there  is  no  color  lor  your  keeping  that!" 
To  which  the  Kaiser  again  answers,  "Nonsense!"  —  and  even 
lulls  ujx)n  astonishing  selienies  about  it,  as  we  shall  see  ;  —  but 
gives  nothing.  Dueal  Preussen  is  sovereign,  Cleve  is  at  Peace, 
llinter-Pomniern  ours;  —  this  Elector  has  eon(iuered  nuudi : 
but  the  Silesian  Heritages  and  Vor-Poniinern,  and  some  other 
things,  he  will  have  to  do  without.  Louis  XIV..  it  is  thought, 
once  offereil  to  get  him  nuule  King ;  *  but  that  he  declined  lor 
the  present. 

His  married  and  domestic  life  is  very  fine  and  human  ;  esjje- 
cially  with  that  Uranien-Nassau  Princess,  who  was  his  first 
Wife  (1646-1 GG7)  ;  Princess  Louisa  of  Nassau-Orange ;  Aunt 
to  our  own  I)ut<h  ^Villiani,  King^Villiam  IIL.  in  time  coming. 
An  excellent  wise  Princess;  from  whom  came  the  Orange 
Herit(^^s,  which  afterwards  jiroved  ditticult  to  settle  :  — 
Orange  was  at  last  exchang«»d  for  the  small  I'rincipality  of 
Keutchatel  in  Switzerland,  which  is  Prussia's  ever  since. 
**  Oranienburg  {Orange-Burg),''  a  Royal  Country-house,  still 
standing,  some  twenty  miles  northwards  from  Berlin,  was 
this  Louisa's  jjlace  :  she  had  trimmed  it  up  into  a  little  jewel, 
of  the  Dutch  type,  —  |x)therb  gardens,  training-schools  for 
young  girls,  and  the  like; — a  favorite  al)o<le  of  hers,  when 
she  was  at  lilx'rty  for  retrreation.  But  her  life  wiis  busy  and 
earnest :  she  was  helpmate,  not  in  name  only,  to  an  ever-busy 
man.  Tln'y  were  married  young ;  a  marriage  of  love  withal. 
Young  Friedrich  Wilhelm's  courtship,  wedding  in  Holland; 
the  honest  trustful  walk  and  conversation  of  the  two  Sover- 
eign SjMHises,  their  journeyings  together,  their  mutual  ho])e.s. 
fears  and  manifold  vicissitudes  ;  till  Death,  with  stern  beaut} . 
shut  it  in  :  —  all  is  human,  true  and  wholesome  in  it ;  inter- 
esting to  look  upon,  and  rare  among  sovereign  persons. 

Not  but  that  he  had  his  troubles  with  his  womankind.  Even 
with  this  his  first  Wife,  whom  he  loved  truly,  and  who  truly 
loved  him,  there  were  scenes  ;  the  Lady  having  a  judgment 
of  her  own  about  everything  that  passed,  and  the  Man  being 

»  Tauli,  V.  321.  '  lb.  vii.  215. 


tHAi.  will.      KUKFLKST   FlUEDliiCll   WILHELM.  293 

1G67. 

choleric  withal.  Sometiuu'S,  I  have  heard,  '•  lu'  -would  da.sh 
his  hat  at  her  feet,"  saying  symbolically,  '•  Govlmu  yuu,  tlieu, 
Madam  !  Not  the  Kurlur£.t-Hat ;  a  Coii"  is  my  wear,  it  seems  !  "  * 
Yet  her  jiul^^ment  vviis  good  ;  and  he  liked  to  have  it  on  the 
weightiest  things,  though  her  powers  of  silem-e  miL;ht  halt 
now  and  then.  lie  has  been  known,  on  occasion,  to  run  from 
his  rrivy-Council  to  her  apartment,  while  a  complex  matter 
was  debating,  to  ask  her  opinion,  hers  too,  before  it  was  tle- 
cided.  Excellent  Louisa ;  Princess  full  of  beautiful  piety, 
good-sense  and  aftection  ;  a  touch  of  the  Nassau-Heroic  iu 
her.  At  the  moment  of  her  death,  it  is  said,  when  speech 
h;ul  fled,  he  felt,  from  her  hand  whiih  lay  in  his,  three  slight, 
slight  jiressures  :  '*  Farewell  !  "  thrice  mut«dy  sj)oken  iu  that 
maumr,  —  not  easy  to  forget  in  this  world. - 

His  second  Wife,  Dor()the;i,  —  who  ])lanted  the  Lindens  in 
iJerlin,  and  did  other  husbandries,  of  whom  we  have  heard, 
fell  far  short  of  Louisa  in  many  things  ;  but  not  in  tendency 
to  advi.-e,  to  remonstrate,  and  plaintively  reflect  on  the  liuished 
and  unalterable.  Dreadfully  thriity  laily,  moreover ;  did  much 
in  dairy  produce,  farming  of  town-rates,  provision-taxes :  not 
to  speak  again  of  that  Tavern  she  was  thought  to  have  in 
l>erlin,  and  to  draw  custom  to  in  an  oblique  manner  !  What 
scenes  she  had  with  Friedrieh  her  stepson,  we  have  seen. 
''  Ah,  I  have  not  my  Louisa  now  ;  to  whom  now  shall  I  run 
for  advice  or  help  !  "  would  the  poor  Kurliirst  at  times 
exclaim. 

He  had  some  trouble,  considerable  trouble  now  and  then, 
with  mutinous  spirits  in  Preussen  ;  men  standing  on  antique 
I'russian  franchises  and  parchments ;  refusing  to  see  that  the 
same  were  now  antiquated,  incompatible,  not  to  say  impossi- 
ble, as  the  new  Sovereign  alleged ;  and  carrying  themselves 
very  stiffly  at  times.  But  the  Hohenzollerns  had  been  used  to 
such  things;  a  Hoheuzollern  like  this  one  would  evidently 
take  his  measures,  soft  but  strong,  and  ever  stronger  to  the 
needful  pitch,  with  mutinous  spirits.  One  Burgermeister  of 
Konigsberg,  after  much  stroking  on  the  back,  was  at  length 

^  Forster,  Friedrieh  Wilhdin  I.  Koniij  von  Prevssen  (Potsdam,  1834),  i.  177. 
'  Wegfuhrer,  Z/ri«.n  dtr  Kurtuiitin  Luise  (Leipzig,  1838),  p.  175. 


294     Tin:   nuilLNZoLLLlLNS   I.N    ilKANDENBUliG.    U-h.k  III. 

I«4t)-1G«8. 

seized  iu  open  Hull,  by  Electoral  writ,  —  soldiers  having  tirst 
gently  banicadeil  the  ijrincipal  streets,  and  brought  c;innon 
to  bear  upon  theui.  This  liiirgermeister,  seized  in  such  brief 
way,  lay  ])risoner  for  life  ;  refusing  to  aak  his  liberty,  though 
it  was  thought  he  might  have  had  it  on  asking.' 

Another  gentleman,  a  Uaron  von  Kalkstein.  of  old  Teutsch- 
Kitter  kin,  of  very  high  ways,  in  the  I'rovincial  Estates 
(Stiinde)  and  elsewhere,  got  into  lofty  almost  solitary  opjKv 
sition,  and  at  length  into  mutiny  projK'r,  against  the  new 
•'  Non-rolish  Sorcnitjn,"  and  Hatly  refused  to  do  homage  at 
his  accession  in  that  new  capacity.^  Refused,  Kalkstein  did, 
for  his  share ;  fleil  to  Warsaw  ;  and  very  fiercely,  in  a  loud 
manner,  c;uTied  on  his  mutinies  in  the  Diets  and  Court-0»M- 
claves  there;  his  plea  l)eing,  or  plea  for  the  time,  "  I'olanil 
is  our  liege  lord  [which  it  was  not  always],  ami  we  cannot 
be  transferred  to  you,  except  by  our  consent  asked  and 
given,"  which  too  had  been  a  little  neglected  on  the  former 
t)ccasion  of  transfer.  So  that  the  (Jreat  Elector  knew  not 
what  to  do  with  Kalkstein;  and  at  length  (as  the  case  was 
pressing)  had  him  kidnapiied  by  his  Ambassador  at  Warsaw ; 
had  him  "  rolled  into  a  carpet  "  there,  and  carried  swiftly 
in  the  And)assador's  coach,  in  the  form  of  luggage,  over  the 
frontier,  into  his  native  l*rovince,  there  to  be  judged,  and,  in 
the  end  (since  nothing  else  would  serve  him),  to  have  the 
sentence  executed,  and  his  head  cut  off.  For  the  case  was 
pressing  !"  —  These  things,  especially  this  of  Kalkstein,  with 
a  lK)isterous  Polish  Diet  and  parliamentary  eloquence  in  the 
rear  of  him,  gave  rise  to  criticism ;  and  required  manage- 
ment on  the  part  of  the  Great  Elector. 

Of  all  his  Ancestors,  our  little  Fritz,  when  he  grew  big, 
admired  this  one.  A  man  made  like  himself  in  many  points. 
He  seems  really  to  have  loved  and  honored  this  one.  In  the 
year  1750  there  had  U^en  a  new  Cathedral  got  finished  at  Ber- 
lin ;  the  ancestral  l)ones  had  to  be  shifted  over  from  the  vaults 
of  the  old  one,  —  the  burying-place  ever  since  Joachim  II.,  that 

'  Horn,  D.IS  Lehen  Friedrich  WiUtelms  de$  Grossen  (Berliu,  1814),  p.  68. 
*  Suprk,  pp.  383  et  seqq. 
«  Horn,  pp.  80-S2. 


CiiAH.  will.      KUUFIJKST    FUIEDliU  II    WILIIELM.  29o 

1(.88. 

Juiu-hiui  who  drew  his  swoitl  un  Alba.  ''  King  Friedrich, 
with  some  iitteiukmts,  wituessi-d  the  oitenition,  January,  17.")0. 
^Vhl'u  the  Great  Kuriurst"s  colhn  came,  he  ma(k!  them  oijeu 
it;  gazed  in  silence  on  the  features  for  some  time,  which 
were  perfectly  recognizal)le  ;  laid  his  hand  on  the  hand  long 
dead,  and  saiil,  '  Mrssicuns,  ctlui-ci  a  fait  de  ymndcs  choscs 
(This   one  did  a  great  work)  ! ' "  * 

lie  dii'd  L'lHh  April,  lOSS  ; — looking  with  intense  interest 
upon  Dutch  William's  j (reparations  to  produce  a  Glorious 
Revolution  in  this  Island  ;  being  always  of  an  ardent  I'rot- 
esUmt  feeling,  and  a  sincerely  religious  num.  Friedrich, 
Crow  ji- Prince,  age  then  thirty -one,  and  already  married  a 
seconil  time,  was  of  course  left  Chief  Heir;  —  who,  as  we 
see,  has  not  dfclined  the  Kingship,  when  a  chance  for  it 
otTered.  There  were  four  Half-brothers  of  Friedrich,  too, 
who  got  apanages,  appointments.  They  hatl  at  one  time  con- 
fidently h)uked  for  much  more,  their  Mother  being  busy;  but 
were  obliged  to  be  content,  and  conform  to  the  (itru  JJuud 
ami  fundamentiil  I^aws  of  the  Country.  They  are  cntitletl 
Margraves  ;  two  of  whom  left  children,  Margraves  of  liran- 
dcnburg-Schwedt,  JJii-nticLstcrs  ^^lleiul  of  the  Malta-Knight- 
hood) at  Souneuburg,  Statthalters  in  Magdebua-g,  or  I  know 
not  what ;  whose  names  turn  up  confusedly  in  the  I'russian 
liooks;  and,  except  iis  temporary  genealogicid  jiuzzles,  are 
not  of  much  moment  to  the  Foreign  reader.  Happily  there 
is  nothing  else  in  the  way  of  Princes  of  the  Blood,  in  our 
little  Friedrich's  time;  and  happily  what  concern  he  had 
with  these,  or  how  he  w;ls  related  to  them,  will  not  be  ab- 
struse to  us,  if  occasion  rise. 

*  See  Preuss,  i.  270. 


2yU    THE  IIUIIL.NZOLLLKN.S   IN    UKANDENHrh'i..    15<'<'k  III. 

104U-1GS8 


CHAl'lEK    XIX. 


KIN'O    FKIKDUKH    I.    A<;.\IN. 


We  said  the  (Jrcat  EU-ctor  novrr  coulJ  work  hi.s  Silosian 
Pucliiea  out  of  KaisiT  LeoiKjUl's  grip:  to  all  hi.s  uiguucics  tho 
little  Kaiser  in  red  stockings  answi-rtnl  only  in  evasions,  refu- 
sals ;  and  would  <niit  nolliing.  We  nuticeil  ulso  what  (juarn  Is 
the  young  Electoral  i'rince,  Friedrich,  alterwards  King,  luul 
got  into  with  his  Stepmother ;  su«ldenly  feeling  poisoned  after 
dinner,  running  to  his  Aunt  at  C.issid,  ecuuing  hack  on  treaty, 
and  the  like.  These  are  two  facts  which  tl»e  reader  knows  : 
and  out  of  these  two  grew  a  third,  which  it  is  tit  he  shouhl 
know. 

In  his  last  years,  the  (Jreat  Elector,  worn  out  with  laUir, 
and  hariissed  with  such  domestic  troubles  over  and  above, 
had  evidently  fallen  much  under  his  Wife's  management; 
cutting  out  large  ai)anages  (clear  against  the  (iira  lioml)  for 
her  children;  —  longing  probably  for  ([uiet  in  his  family  at 
any  price.  As  to  the  j>oor  ycning  I'rinee,  negotiat«'(l  l)a«-k  from 
Cassel,  he  lived  remote,  and  had  fallen  into  ojx'U  disfavor,  — 
Avith  a  very  ill  effect  ui>on  his  fund.s,  for  one  thing.  His 
father  kept  him  somewhat  tight  on  the  money-side,  it  is 
alleged;  and  he  had  rather  a  turn  for  sjwnding  money  hand- 
somely. He  was  also  in  some  alarm  about  the  proposed  apa- 
nages to  his  Half-brcjthers,  the  Margraves  above  mentioned, 
of  which  there   were  rumors  going. 

How  Austria  settled  the  fi>ih'^i>7n    Chiimn. 

Now  in  tliese  circumstances  the  Austrian  Court,  who  at  this 
time  (1685)  greatly  needed  the  Elector's  help  against  Turks 
and  others,  and  found  him  very  urgent  about  these  Silesian 
Duchies  of  his,  fell  upon  what  1  must  call  a  very  extraordinary 


CiiAP.  XIX.  KL\(;    FRIEDKICH    I.   AGAIN.  297 

shift  for  getting  rid  of  the  Silesian  quostioii.  '•  Serene  High- 
ness," said  they,  by  their  Ambassador  at  Berlin,  "  to  end  these 
troubh'sonie  talks,  and  to  lic^uidate  all  (.lainis,  admissible  and 
iuadiuissiblc,  about  Silesia,  the  Imperial  ^Majesty  will  give  you 
an  actual  bit  of  Territory,  valuable,  though  not  so  large  as  you 
expected  !  "  Tlu'  Elector  listens  with  both  ears  :  What  Ter- 
ritory, then  ?  The  "  Circle  of  Schwiebus,"  hanging  on  the 
northwestern  edge  of  Silesia,  contiguous  to  the  Elector's  own 
])oniinions  in  these  Frankfurt-on-t )der  regions:  this  the  gener- 
ous Imperial  Majesty  jjroposcs  to  give  in  fee-simple  to  Fried- 
ricli  Willielm,  and  so  to  end  the  matter.  Truly  a  most  small 
patch  of  'J'erritory  in  comi)arison  ;  not  bigger  than  an  English 
Kutlandshire,  to  say  nothing  of  soil  and  climate !  liut  then 
again  it  was  an  actual  patch  of  territory ;  not  a  mere  i);uch- 
ment  shadow  of  one :  this  last  was  a  tempting  jioint  to  the  old 
hai-assed  Elector.  Such  friendly  olTer  they  made  him,  I  think, 
in  IGSo,  at  the  time  they  were  gitting  8,000  at  his  troops  to 
march  against  the  Turks  for  them ;  a  very  needful  service  at 
tht>  moment.  **  By  the  bye,  do  not  march  through  Silesia, 
you  !  — Or  march  faster  !  *'  siiid  the  cautious  Austrians  on  this 
occasion  :  "  Other  roads  will  answer  better  than  Silesia  ! " 
said  they.^  Biuon  Freytag,  their  Ambassador  at  Berlin,  had 
negotiated  the  affair  so  far:  "Circle  of  Schwiebus,"  said  Frey- 
tag, "  luid  let  us  have  done  w  ith  these  thorny  talks  !  " 

But  Baion  Freytag  had  been  busy,  in  the  mean  while,  with 
the  young  Frinee  ;  secretly  offering  sympathy,  counsel,  help  ; 
of  ail  which  the  poor  I'rince  stood  in  need  enough.  *'  "We  wall 
help  you  in  that  dangerous  matter  of  the  Apanages,"  said 
Freytag;  ''Help  you  in  all  things," — I  suppose  he  would 
say,  —  "  necessarj'  pocket-money  is  not  a  thing  your  Highness 
need  want ! "  And  thus  Baron  Freytag,  what  is  very  curious, 
had  managed  to  bargain  beforehand  with  the  young  Prince, 
That  directly  on  coming  to  ix)wer,  he  would  give  up  Schwiebus 
again,  should  the  offer  of  Schwiebus  be  accepted  by  Papa.  To 
which  effect  Baron  Freytag  held  a  signed  Bond,  duly  executed 
by  the  young  man,  before  Papa  had  concluded  at  all.  Which 
is  very  curious  indeed  !  — 

1  Pauli,  V.  327.  332. 


298    THE  HU1IE.N/:uLL1:RN.S   in    liKANDKNUi  Ki;.   B<M,K  III, 

Poor  old  Papa,  Mora  out  with  troubles,  accepted  .ScLwicbus 
in  liquidation  of  all  claims  (Sth  April,  1G86),  and  a  few  days 
after  set  his  men  on  march  against  the  Turks  :  — and,  exactly 
two  mouths  beforehand,  on  the  Sth  of  F»*bruary  last,  the 
Prince  had  signed  his  secret  engagement,  That  Schwiebus 
should  be  a  mere  phanUism  to  Papa  ;  that  he,  tlie  Prince, 
would  restore  it  on  his  aeeessicn.  iJoth  these  singular  Parch- 
ments, signed,  sealed  and  done  in  the  due  legal  form,  lay 
siinultaueously  in  Freytag's  hand  ;  and  jirobably  encmgh  thc'V 
exist  yet,  in  some  dusty  corner,  among  the  solfiun  sheepskins 
of  the  world.  This  is  literally  the  j)lan  hit  upon  liy  an  Im- 
perial Court,  to  assist  a  young  Prince  in  his  pecuniary  and 
other  ditiieulties,  and  get  rid  of  Silesian  claims.  Plan  actually 
not  unlike  that  of  swindling  money-lenders  to  a  young  gentle- 
man in  dilHeulties,  and  of  nuuiageable  turn,  who  has  got  into 
their  hands. 

The  Great  Elector  died  two  years  after;  Schwiebus  then  in 
his  hand.  The  new  Elector,  once  instructed  as  to  the  nature 
of  the  affair,  refused  to  give  up  iSchwiebus;*  declared  the 
transaction  a  swindle :  —  and  in  fact,  for  seven  years  more, 
retained  possession  of  Schwiebus.  But  the  Austrian  Court 
insisted,  with  empluuiis,  at  leugtli  with  threats  (no  in.^uperable 
pressure  from  Louis,  or  the  Turks,  at  this  time) ;  the  poor 
cheated  Elector  had,  at  last,  to  give  up  Schwiebus,  in  terms  of 
his  promise.*  He  took  act  that  it  had  been  a  surreptitious 
transaction,  palmed  upon  him  while  ignorant,  and  while  with- 
out the  least  autliority  or  power  to  make  such  a  promise  ; 
that  he  wiis  not  bound  by  it,  nor  would  be,  except  on  com- 
])ulsion  thus  far :  and  as  to  binding  Brandenburg  by  it, 
how  could  he,  at  that  i)eriod  of  his  history,  bind  Branden- 
burg ?  Brandenburg  was  not  then  his  to  bind,  any  more  than 
China  was. 

His  Baths  had  advised  Friedrich  against  giving  up  Schwie- 
bus in  that  manner.  But  his  answer  is  on  record  :  "  I  must, 
I  will  and  shall  keep  ray  own  word.  But  my  rights  on  Silesia, 
which  I  could  not,  and  do  not  in  these  unjust  circumstances, 
compromise,  I  leave  intact  for  my  posterity  to  prosecute.  If 
1  19th  September,  1689  (Pauli,  vii.  74).  *  31st  December,  1694. 


(MAP.  XIX.  KING  FRIEDRICII  I.   AGAIN.  299 

lo88-17I3. 

(Joel  ami  the  course  of  events  order  it  no  otherwise  than  now, 
we  must  be  content.  But  if  God  shall  one  day  send  the 
opportunity,  those  that  come  after  me  will  know  what  they 
have  tt)  do  in  such  case."  *  And  so  Schwiebus  was  given  up, 
the  Austrians  paying  back  what  Brandenburg  had  laid  out  in 
improving  it,  ''  250,000  r/ufden  (£2.5,000)  ;  "  —  and  the  Hand 
of  Power  had  in  this  way,  finally  as  it  hoped,  settled  an  old 
troublesome  account  of  Brandenburg's.  Settled  the  Silesiun- 
Duchies  Claim,  by  the  temporary  IMiantasm  of  a  Gift  of  Schwie- 
bus.  Tliat  is  literally  tlie  Liegnitz-^Higcrndorf  case  ;  and  the 
reader  is  to  note  it  and  remember  it.  For  it  will  turn  up  again 
in  History.  The  Hand  of  Tower  is  very  strong :  but  a  stronger 
may  perhaps  get  hold  of  its  knuckles  one  day,  at  an  iulvan- 
tageous  time,  and  do  a  feat  upon  it. 

The  **  eventual  succession  to  East  Fricsland,"  which  had 
been  promised  by  the  Reich,  some  ten  years  ago,  to  the  Great 
Elector,  *'  for  what  he  luul  done  against  the  Turks,  ami  wliat 
he  had  suffered  from  those  Swedish  Invasions,  in  the  Common 
Cause  : "  this  sluulow  of  Succession,  the  Kaiser  now  said, 
sliouhl  not  be  haggled  with  any  more  ;  but  be  actually  real- 
ized, and  the  Imi)erial  sanction  to  it  now  given,  —  effect  to 
follow  //'  the  Friesland  Line  died  out.  Let  this  be  some  con- 
solation for  the  loss  of  Schwiebus  and  your  Silesian  Duchies. 
Here  in  Friesland  is  the  ghost  of  a  coming  possession  ;  there 
in  Schwiebus  was  the  ghost  of  a  going  one :  phantasms  you 
shall  not  want  for  ;  but  the  Hand  of  Power  parts  not  with  its 
realities,  however  come  by. 

His  real  Character. 

Poor  Friedrich  led  a  conspicuous  life  as  Elector  and  King ; 
but  no  public  feat  he  did  now  concerns  us  like  this  private 
one  of  Schwiebus.  Historically  important,  this,  and  requiring 
to  be  remembered,  while  so  much  else  demands  mere  oblivion 
from  us.  He  was  a  spirited  man ;  did  soldierings,  fine  Siege 
of  Bonn  (July-October,  1G89),  sieges  and  campaignings,  in  per- 
son, —  valiant  in  action,  royal  especially  in  patience  there,  — 

1  Pauli,  vii.  150. 


300      H(jiii:nz()LLKUN"s  in  ukandknuukc        h-k  hi. 

(luring  that  Third  War  of  Louis-Fourteentli's,  the  Trc:ity-of- 
Ryswick  one.  All  through  the  Fourth,  or  Spanish  Succession- 
War,  liis  Trussiun  Ten-Thousand,  led  by  tit  generals,  showed 
eminently  wliat  stuff  tliey  were  made  of.  Witness  Leojwld  of 
Anhalt-Dessau  (still  a  young  Dessauer)  on  the  field  of  Blen- 
heim ; —  Leo|)old  li.'ul  the  right  wing  there,  and  saved  rrine(> 
Eugene  who  was  otherwise  blown  to  pieces,  while  Marlborough 
stormed  and  conquered  on  the  left.  Witness  the  same  Des- 
sauer on  the  field  of  Hochstiidt  the  year  l>eft»iv,*  how  he 
managed  the  retreat  there.  Ur  see  him  at  tlie  Hridge  of  Cas- 
sano  (1705);  in  the  Lines  of  Turin  (170G);'  wherever  ]i<  t 
service  was  on  hand.  At  >rali)la(in«'t,  in  those  murderous 
inexjmgnable  Freneli  Lines,  l>h)odiest  of  obstinate  Fights  {\\\>- 
wards  of  thirty  thousand  left  on  the  ground)^  the  Prussians 
brag  that  it  wa,s  th«'y  who  picked  their  way  through  a  eerbiiu 
peat-lK>g,  reckoned  impassal)le  ;  and  got  fairly  in  upon  the 
French  wing,  —  to  the  huge  comfort  of  Marlborougli,  and  little 
Eugene  his  brisk  comrade  on  that  ot-casion.  MarlUirough 
knew  well  the  worth  of  these  Prussian  trot)ps,  and  also  how  to 
stroke  his  Majesty  into  continuing  them  in  the  field. 

He  was  an  expensive  King,  surrounded  liy  cabals,  by 
WartenU^rgs  male  and  fenuile,  by  whirlpools  of  intrigues, 
which,  now  that  the  game  is  over,  become  very  forgettable, 
liut  one  finds  he  was  a  strictly  honorable  man;  with  a  cer- 
tain height  and  generosity  of  mind,  capable  of  other  nobleness 
thaii  the  upholstery  kind.  He  ha<l  what  we  may  call  a  hard 
life  of  it ;  did  and  suffered  a  good  deal  in  his  day  and  genera- 
tion, not  at  all  in  a  dishonest  or  unmanfid  manner.  In  fact, 
he  is  quite  recognizably  a  Hohenzollern,  —  witli  his  back  half 
broken.  Readers  recollect  that  sad  accident :  how  the  Xurse, 
in  one  of  those  headlong  journeys  which  his  Father  and 
Mother  were  always  making,  let  the  poor  child  fall  or  jerk 
backward ;  and  spoiled  him  much,  and  indeed  was  thought  to 
have  killed  him,  by  that  piece  of  inattention.  He  was  not 
yet  Hereditary  Prince,  he  was  only  second  son  :  but  the  elder 

*  Vamhagen  von  Ense,  Biographische  Danhnnle  (Berlin,  184.'>),  ii.  155. 
2  Lks  iixhberuhmten  Furslens  Leopoldi  von  AnfmU-Dessiiu  Leben  und  TluUm 
(Leipzig,  1742,  anoDvmoas,  hv  one  Michael  Rmijffl),  pp.  53,  61. 


r.iM-.  XFX.  KING    KRIEDRICII   I.    AGAIN.  ?01 

itw»-i7ia. 

died;  and  he  became  Elector,  King;  and  had  to  go  with  his 
spine  distorted,  —  distortion  not  glaringly  conspicuous,  though 
undeniable ;  —  and  to  act  the  Hohenzollern  w.  Nay  who 
knows  but  it  was  this  very  jerk,  and  the  half-ruin  of  his 
nervous  system,  —  this  doubled  wiiih  to  be  beautiful,  and  this 
crooked  l)ack  capable  of  being  hid  or  decorated  into  straight- 
ness,  —  that  first  sot  the  poor  man  on  tliinking  of  expensive 
ornamental ities,  and  Kingships  in  piu-ticular  */  History  will 
forgive  the  Nurse  in  that  case. 

Pe'rhaps  History  ha,s  dwelt  too  nnieh  on  tlie  blind  side  of 
this  expensive  King,  Toland,  on  entering  his  country,  was 
struck  rather  with  the  signs  of  goo<l  administration  every- 
where. No  sooner  have  you  crossed  the  Prussiun  Border,  out 
of  Westphalia,  says  Toland,  than  smooth  highways,  well- 
tilled  fields,  and  a  general  air  of  industry  and  regularity,  are 
evident:  solid  milestones,  bra.ss-lx)und,  and  with  brass  inscrij)- 
tion,  tell  the  traveller  where  he  is ;  who  finds  due  guidance 
of  finger-posts,  too,  and  the  blessing  of  habitable  inns.  The 
people  seem  all  to  be  busy,  diligently  occupied ;  villages  rea- 
sonably swept  and  wliitew;i,shed  ;  —  never  was  a  l>etter  set  of 
Parish  Churches ;  whether  new-built  or  old,  they  are  all  in 
brand-new  repair.  The  contrast  with  Westphalia  is  immediate 
and  great ;  but  indeed  that  was  a  sad  country,  to  anybody  but 
a  patient  Toland,  who  knows  the  causes  of  phenomena.  No 
inns  there,  except  of  the  naturally  savage  sort.  "  A  man  is 
very  happy  if  he  finds  clean  straw  to  sleep  on,  without 
expecting  sheets  or  coverings  ;  let  him  readily  dispense  with 
plates,  forks  and  napkins,  if  he  can  get  anything  to  eat.  .  .  . 
He  must  be  content  to  have  the  cows,  swine  and  poultry  for 
his  fellow-lodgers,  and  to  go  in  at  the  same  passage  that  the 
smoke  comes  out  at,  for  there 's  no  other  vent  for  it  but 
the  door ;  which  makes  foreigners  commonly  say  that  the 
people  of  Westphalia  enter  their  houses  by  the  chimney." 
And  observe  withal :  "  This  is  the  reason  why  their  beef  and 
hams  are  so  finely  prepared  and  ripened ;  for  the  fireplac3 
being  backwards,  the  smoke  must  spread  over  all  the  house 
before  it  gets  to  the  door;  which  makes  everything  within 
of  a  russet  or  sable  color,  not  excepting  the  hands  and  faces 


302    Tin:  lI(JlIi:NZOLLi:iiNS  in   nUANDIlNIiUliG.    n..<.K  III. 

of  the  meaner  sort."  *     If  Prussia  yielil  to  Westphalia  in  ham, 
in  all  else  she  is  strikingly  suijerior. 

He  founded  Universities,  this  ])Oor  Kinjj;  University  of 
Halle;  Royal  Ae;ulemy  of  Jierlin,  Leibnitz  presiding:  he 
fought  ff)r  Protestantism  ;  —  did  what  he  could  for  the  cause 
of  Cosmos  versus  Chaos,  after  his  fa-shion.  The  magnilicences 
of  his  Charlotten burgs,  Oranienburgs  and  numerous  Coun- 
try-hou.ses  make  Toland  almost  poetic.  An  affable  kindly 
man  withal,  though  fjuick  of  temper;  his  word  sacrecl  to  him. 
A  man  of  many  tr()ul)les,  and  ae(iuainted  with  "  the  inhnitely 
\itt\e(r inJininicfU  peiit),''  as  his  Queen  termed  it. 


('iiArTi:i:  xx. 

nE.VTll    OK    KIN<;    IKIKDKICH    I. 

()i.i>  I\ing  I'riedrich  I.  had  not  much  more  to  do  in  the 
world,  after  witnessing  the  christening  of  his  Grandson  of 
like  name.  His  hauling  forth  or  semling  forth  of  tr<H)j)s, 
his  multiplex  negotiation.s,  solemn  ceremonials,  sad  chang«-s 
of  ministry,  sometimes  tninsa<'t<^d  "  with  tears,"  are  mostly 
ended;  the  ever-whirling  dust-vortex  of  intrigues,  of  which 
he  Ikis  been  the  centre  for  a  five-and-twenty  years,  is  settling 
down  finally  towards  everlasting  rest.  No  more  will  Marl- 
borough come  and  dexterously  talk  him  over,  —  proud  to 
"serve  as  cupbearer,"  on  occasion,  to  so  high  a  King  —  for 
new  bodies  of  men  to  help  in  the  next  campaign :  we  have 
ceased  to  be  a  King  worthy  of  such  a  cupbearer,  and  Marl- 
borough's campaigns  too  are  all  ended. 

Much  is  ended.  They  are  doing  the  sorrowful  Treaty  of 
Utrecht;  Louis  XIV.  himself  is  ending;  mournfully  shrunk 
into  the  corner,  with  his  Missal  and  his  Maintenon;  looking 
back  with  just  horror  on  Europe  four  times  set  ablaze  for  the 
sake  of  one  poor  mortal  in  big  periwig,  to  no  purpose.     Lucky 

'  An  Account  of  the  Courts  of  Prussia  and  Uanoi^er,  by  Mr.  Tuland  (cited 
already),  p.  4. 


C.IAI-.  XX.  DEATH    nK    KINC    FKIEDRICII    I.  303 

1712. 

if  perhaps  Missal-work,  orthoilox  litanies,  and  even  Protes- 
tant Dragonnades,  can  have  virtue  to  wipe  out  such  a  score 
against  a  man !  Unhappy  Louis :  the  sun-bright  gold  has 
become  dim  as  copper;  we  rose  in  storms,  and  we  are  setting 
in  watery  clouds.  The  Kaiser  himself  (Karl  VI.,  Leopold's 
Son,  Joseph  l.'s  younger  Brother)  will  have  to  conform  to 
this  Treaty  of  Utrecht:  what  other  possibility  for  him? 

The  English,  always  a  wonderful  Nation,  fought  and  sul> 
sidied  from  side  to  side  of  Europe  for  this  Spanish-Succession 
business ;  fought  ten  years,  such  fighting  as  they  never  did 
before  or  since,  under  "John  Duke  of  Murlbor(ni>^di,"  who, 
as  is  well  known,  "  beat  the  French  thorough  and  thorough." 
French  entirely  beaten  at  last,  not  without  heroic  difficulty 
and  as  mtble  talent  as  wiis  ever  shown  in  dijjlomacy  and  war, 
are  ready  to  do  your  will  in  all  things  ;  in  this  of  giving  up 
Spain,  among  others:  —  whereupon  the  English  turn  round, 
with  a  sudden  new  thought,  "  No,  we  will  not  have  our  will. 
done ;  it  shall  be  the  other  way,  the  way  it  was,  —  now  that 
wc  bethink  ourselves,  after  all  this  fighting  for  our  will  I '' 
And  make  reace  on  those  terms,  as  if  no  war  had  been;  and 
accuse  the  great  Marlborough  of  many  things,  of  theft  for  one. 
A  wonderful  People  ;  and  in  their  Continental  Politics  (which 
indeed  consist  chiefly  of  Subsidies)  thrice  wonderful.  So  the 
Treaty  of  Utrecht  is  transacting  itself ;  which  tliat  of  Rastadt, 
on  the  part  of  Kaiser  and  Empire,  unable  to  get  on  without 
Subsidies,  will  have  to  follow  :  and  after  such  quantities  of 
powder  burnt,  and  courageous  lives  wasted,  general  As-you- 
were  is  the  result  arrived  at. 

Old  Friedrich's  Ambassadors  are  present  at  Utrecht,  jan- 
gling and  pleading  among  the  rest ;  at  Berlin  too  the  despatch 
of  business  goes  lumbering  on  ;  but  what  thing,  in  the  shape 
of  business,  at  Utrecht  or  at  Berlin,  is  of  much  importance  to 
the  old  man  ?  Seems  as  if  Europe  itself  were  waxing  dim, 
and  sinking  to  stupid  sleep,  —  as  we,  in  our  poor  royal  person, 
full  surely  are.  A  Crown  has  been  achieved,  and  diamond  but- 
tons worth  £1,500  apiece;  but  what  is  a  Crown,  and  what  are 
buttons,  after  all  ?  —  I  suppose  the  tattle  and  singeries  of  little 
Wilhelmiua,  whom  he  would  spend  whole  days  with ;  this  and 


oU4    TIIH  IKHIKNZoLLEKNS  IN    IIKANDKNHUHG.    IJ«x'k  III. 

1088-171:3. 

occasional  visits  to  a  young  Fritzchen's  cnulle,  who  is  thriving 
moderately,  and  will  speak  and  do  ai>eries  one  day,  —  are  his 
main  solacements  in  the  days  that  are  passing,  Ahuh  of  this 
Fric'tlrich's  life  has  gom;  olf  like  tlie  smoke  tif  tir«'-works,  h;vs 
faded  sorrowfully,  and  proved  phantasmal.  Here  is  an  old 
Autograph  Nttte,  written  l»y  him  at  the  side  of  that  Cradle, 
and  touching  on  a  slight  event  there ;  which,  as  it  connects 
two  venerable  Correspondents  and  their  Seventeenth  Century 
with  a  grand  riienomcnon  of  the  Eighteenth,  we  will  insert 
here.  The  old  King  addresses  his  older  Mother-in-law,  famed 
Electress  Sophie  of  Hanover,  in  these  terms  (spelling  cor- 
rected) :  — 

"Ca.\RL<)TTExiiriuj,  den  30  August,  1712. 

*'  Ew.  Churf.  Durchlaucht  werden  sich  zweifelsohne  mit  uns 
erfreuen,  d;iss  der  kleine  I'rintz  (I'riiiz)  Fritz  nuhnmero  {nun- 
viehr)  G  Zehne  {Zahtw)  hat  uud  ohne  die  geringste  iueom- 
moditet  (-tiit).  Daraus  kann  man  audi  die  prcdtstliKitim 
sehen,  dass  alle  seine  Briider  haben  daran  sterben  miissen, 
dieser  aber  l)ekommt  sie  ohne  Miihe  wie  seine  Sch wester. 
Gott  erhalte  ihn  uns  noih  lange  zum  trohst  (  Trust),  in  dessen 
Schutz  ich  dieselbe  ergel>e  und  lebenslang  verbleiln?, 

"Ew.  Churf.  Durchl.  gehorsamster  Diener  und  treuer  Sohn, 

"Fkieokkh  li."^ 

Uf  which  this  is  the  literal  English  :  — 

"  Your  Electoral  Serenity  will  doubtless  rejoice  with  us 
that  the  little  Prince  Fritz  has  now  got  his  sixth  tooth  with- 
out the  least  himmnwdite.  And  therein  we  may  trace  a  pre- 
destination, inasmuch  as  his  Brotliers  died  of  teething  [Ao< 
of  cannon-sound  and  rceight  of  head-gear,  then,  your  Majesty 
thinks?  That  verc  a  pninful  thoriyhtf};  and  this  one,  as 
his  Sister  [  ]rUhelmina~\  did,  gets  them  [the  teeth']  without 
trouble.  God  preserve  him  long  for  a  comfort  to  us :  —  to 
whose  protection  I  commit  Dleselhe  [  Your  Electoral  Highness, 
in  the  third  person],  and  remain  lifelong, 

'•  Your  Electoral   Highness's   most    obedient   Servant  and 

^"^^^°°'  "Friedrich  Rhx." 

'  Preuss,  Frkdiidi  dtr  Grosse  {Hitlorisihe  Skizze,  Berlin,  1838),  p.  380. 


oiiAi-.  XX.       DKAi'ii  OF  klnl;   FiaEDKlCll  I.  305 

1708-1713. 

One  of  Friediich  Ilex's  worst  adveiitiucs  wiuj  his  latest ; 
comnieiieed  some  five  or  six  years  ago  (1708),  autl  now  uot 
far  from  terminating.  He  was  a  \Vidowc'r,  of  weakly  con- 
stitution, towards  fifty:  his  beautiful  ingenious  ''Serena," 
witli  all  her  Theologies,  pineh-of-snulf  Coronations  and  other 
earthly  troubles,  was  dead;  and  the  task  of  continuing  the 
llohenzollern  progeny,  given  over  to  Friedrich  W'ilhelm  the 
I'rince  Koyal,  was  thought  to  be  in  good  hands.  Majesty 
Friedrich  with  the  weak  back  had  retired,  in  1708,  to  Karls- 
badj  to  rest  from  his  cares ;  to  take  the  salutary  waters,  and 
recruit  his  weak  nerves  a  little.  Here,  in  the  course  of  con- 
fidential promena<lings,  it  was  hinted,  it  was  represented  to 
him  bj'  some  i)ickthank  of  a  courtier,  That  the  task  of  continu- 
ing the  llohenzolU-rn  progeny  did  not  seem  to  prosper  in  the 
l»resent  good  hanils  ;  that  Sophie  Dorothee,  Frincess  Koyal, 
had  already  borne  two  royal  infants  which  had  speedily  died : 
that  in  tact  it  was  to  l>e  gathered  from  the  medical  men,  if  not 
from  tluir  words,  then  from  their  looks  and  cautious  iuim- 
endoes,  that  Sophie  Dorothee,  Frincess  Koyal,  would  never 
produce  a  Frince  or  even  Frincess  that  would  live ;  which 
task,  therefore,  did  now  again  seenx  to  devolve  upon  his  Maj- 
esty, if  his  Majesty  had  not  insuperable  objections  ?  Majesty 
had  no  insuperable  objections  ;  old  Majesty  listened  to  the 
fiattering  tale ;  and,  sure  enough,  he  smarted  for  it  in  a  sig- 
nal manner. 

Fy  due  industry,  a  Frincess  was  fixed  upon  for  Bride, 
Frincess  Sophie  Louisa  of  Meeklenburg-Schwerin,  age  now 
twenty-four :  she  was  got  as  Wife,  and  came  home  to  Berlin 
in  all  iiom}) ;  —  but  good  came  not  with  her  to  anybody  there. 
Not  only  did  she  bring  the  poor  old  man  no  children,  which 
was  a  fault  to  be  overlooked,  considering  Sophie  Dorothee's 
success  ;  but  she  brought  a  querulous,  weak  and  self-sufficient 
female  humor;  found  his  religion  heterodox,  — he  being  Cal- 
vinist,  and  perhaps  even  lax-Calvinist,  she  Lutheran  as  the 
Frussian  Nation  is,  and  strict  to  the  bone  :  —  heterodox  wholly, 
to  the  length  of  no  salvation  possible ;  and  times  rose  on  the 
Berlin  Court  such  as  had  never  been  seen  before !  "  No 
salvation  possible,  says  my  Dearest  ?  Hah  !  And  an  inno- 
v«.L.  V.  23 


oOtj     THE   llUlIKN/t'LLLKNS    IN    lUCAM  )i,M5Lla;.    !""■'-  HI 

1088-1 7  l;i. 

ceut  Cuuit-ALusk  or  DiUiciiig  Soiree  is  criiuiual    iu  the  sight 

of  God  and  of  the  Queen  ?     And  we  are  children  of   wrath 

wholly,  and  a  irivolous  generation ;  and  the  Queen  will  see  us 

all  — !  •' 

The  end  was,  his  Majesty,  tlirough  sad  solitary  days  and 
nights,  reiMMited  bitterly  that  he  luul  wedded  such  a  She- 
J)(>uunic;  grew  i^uite  estrang«'d  from  her;  the  jtoor  She- 
Dominie  giving  him  due  return  in  her  way,  —  namely,  living 
altogether  in  her  own  apartments,  ujton  orthodoxy,  jealousy 
anil  otlier  had  nourishment.  Till  at  lenj^h  she  went  (j[uite 
matl ;  and,  exei-pt  the  due  medical  and  other  atteuiUmts, 
nolnxly  saw  her,  or  spoke  of  her,  at  Berlin.  Way  this  a 
cheering  issue  of  such  an  adventure  to  the  poor  old  expen- 
sive Gentleman  ?  Jle  endeavored  to  digest  lu  silence  the 
hitter  morsel  he  hail  cooked  fttr  himself;  but  reflected  often, 
as  an  ohl  King  might.  What  dirt  have  1  eaten  I 

In  this  way  stands  that  matter  in  the  Schloss  of  Berlin, 
when  little  Friedrich,  who  will  one  day  be  called  the  Great, 
is  lK)rn.  Habits  of  the  expensive  King,  hours  of  rising, 
modes  of  dressing,  and  so  forth,  are  to  be  found  in  Piillnitz  ;  * 
but  we  charit;ibly  omit  them  all.  Even  from  foolish  ruUnitz 
a  good  eye  will  gather,  what  was  alwve  intinuited,  that  this 
feeble-backed,  heavy-la»len  old  King  was  of  humane  and  just 
disjtosition ;  had  dignity  in  his  demeanor;  had  reticence, 
patience ;  and,  though  hot-temiK^red  like  all  the  Holien/ol- 
lerns,  that  he  bore  himself  like  a  perfect  gentleman  for  one 
thing;  and  tottered  along  his  high-lying  lonesome  road  not  in 
an  unmanful  manner  at  all.  Had  not  his  nerves  been  dam- 
aged by  that  fall  in  infancy,  who  knows  but  we  might  havi- 
had  something  else  to  road  of  him  than  that  he  was  regardless 
of  expense  in  this  world  ! 

His  last  scene,  of  date  February.  ITl.'i,  is  tlic  tragical  ultima- 
tum of  that  fine  Karlsbad  adventure  of  the  Second  marriage,  — 

'  Pollnitz,  Memoiren  zur  Tjtbrvf-  und  Refjiertings-Geschirhle  der  Virr  htzten 
Brtjeuten  des  Prcussischtm  Stoats  (Berlin,  1791).  A  vague,  inexact,  but  not 
quite  uninstmctive  or  unintorosiing  Bfx»k :  Printed  also  in  French,  which  was 
the  (Original,  same  place  and  time. 


Chap.  XX.  DEATH   OF    KING    FRIEDKICII    I.  307 

25lli  Icb.  1713. 

Third  maniage,  in  fact,  though  the  First,  anterior  to  "  Serena," 
is  apt  to  be  l'orgt)tten,  having  lasted  short  while,  and  produced 
only  a  Daughter,  not  memorable  except  by  accident.  This 
Third  marriage,  which  had  brought  so  many  sorrows  to  him, 
l)roved  at  length  the  death  of  the  old  man.  For  he  sat  one 
morning,  in  the  chill  February  days  of  the  Year  1713,  in  his 
Apartment,  jis  usual ;  weak  of  nerves,  but  thinking  no  special 
evil ;  when,  suddenly  with  huge  jingle,  the  glass  door  of  his 
room  went  to  sherds  ;  and  there  rushed  in  —  bleeding  and 
dislievelled,  the  fatal  "White  Lady"  (jrcLsse  Frau),  who  is 
understood  to  walk  that  Schloss  at  iJerlin,  and  announce  Death 
to  the  Koyal  inhabitants.  Majesty  had  fainted,  or  was  faijit- 
ing.  "  Weisse  Frau  ?  Oh  no,  your  :Majesty  !  "  —  not  that ;  but 
indeed  something  almost  worse.  —Mad  Queen,  in  her  Apart- 
ments, had  been  seized,  that  day,  when  half  or  quarter  dressed, 
with  unusual  orthodoxy  or  unusual  jealou.sy.  Watching  her 
opjtortunity,  she  luxd  whisked  into  the  corridor,  in  extreme 
deshabille  ;  and  gone,  like  the  wild  roe,  towards  Majesty's 
Suite  of  Rooms ;  tlirough  Majesty's  glass  door,  like  a  catapult ; 
and  emerged  as  we  saw,  —  in  petticoat  and  shift,  with  hair 
streaming,  eyes  glittering,  arms  cut,  and  the  otlier  sad  trim- 
mings. O  Heaven,  who  could  laugh  ?  There  are  tears  due  to 
Kings  and  to  all  men.  It  was  deep  misery  ;  deej)  enough  "sin 
and  misery,"  as  Calvin  well  says,  on  the  one  side  and  tie 
other !  The  poor  old  King  was  carried  to  bed ;  and  never  rose 
again,  but  died  in  a  few  daj's.  The  date  of  the  IVeisse  Fran's 
death,  one  might  have  hoped,  was  not  distant  either ;  but  she 
lasted,  in  her  sad  state,  for  above  twenty  years  coming. 

Old  King  Friedrich's  death-day  was  2oth  February,  1713  ; 
the  unconscious  little  Grandson  being  then  in  his  Fourteenth 
month.  To  whom,  after  this  long  voyage  round  the  world,  we 
now  gladly  return. 


308   TJii:  ii(>iii;nz(»lli:rns  IN  huandenbuiig.   k-x-k  m. 

i;j;2-i07i. 

•^»  By  way  of  reinforcpmont  to  any  recollection  the  reailcr  may  have  of 
those  Twelve  Holieuzollern  Kurfurstts,  I  will  append  a  coutinuoud  list  of  them, 
with  here  and  there  au  indication. 

The  Twelve  llohenzoUern  Eledors. 

1°.  FRiK.nuicu  I.  (as  HiiruL'nif,  was  Frit'tlrich  \1.)  :  li..ni,  it  is  in- 
ferred, l."{72  (Iteiitsch,  p.  .■{.')(>);  acrossion,  IHlli  April.  1417;  dieil  '^Ist 
Septi'inber,  1440.  \\.\>\  i-»\\\v  to  IJrandeuluirg, .  141:.',  jla  Stattlialter. 
The  Qiiitzows  and  Heavy  Peg. 

2°.  FuiF.DRK  II  II  :  i:»th  Novpinbor.  I4IM;  tilst  Spptombor,  1  1  Id  ; 
10th  Fehruary,  147*.!.  Friodrich  Ironteeth  ;  tames  the  Herlin  liurirhirs. 
Spnke  I'ldish,  was  to  have  Ikhmi  Polish  Kini;.  C'antion-.sliot  upon  his 
dimiiT-tahIo  shatters  his  nerves  so,  that  lie  ahdicates,  and  .siH>n  dies. 
Johannes  Ahhymista  his  elder  Brother;  Allnut  ArhHle.<r\nn  yoiinL'er. 

a^.  ALnKUT  (Achilles)  :  24th  Novoinl.er,  1414;  lOth  Fehriiary.  I  171  ; 
11th  March,  H^l  Third  son  of  Friodrich  I.;  is  lineal  I'ropeiiitor  of 
all  tlio  rest. 

Eldest  S>n,  .fofinnn  Cirrm,  folluwfl  as  Knrfiirst :  n  Younger  Son,  Frirdrirh 
(hy  a  fliffen^nt  Mother),  pot  rnlmbach.  ajid  produced  the  Elder  Lino 
there.     (See  Cjene;il<>|fical  I)i.igram,  p.  ."JOOa.) 

4".  JoilANN  (Cicero):  2d  Aiiirii.st,  14.V);  llth  March.  14"^;;  !»th 
January,  WW.  Bij^  John.  Fricnlrich  of  Culral>ach'8  elder  (Half-) 
Brother. 

5°.  Joachim  I.:  21st  Fehniary,  1484;  0th  January,  14;«>;  llth 
July,  l.'i.'i.').  Loud  in  the  Hefonnation  times  ;  fiually  declares  peremp- 
torily for  the  Coiis«^rvative  side.  Wife  (Sister  of  Christian  II.  of  Den- 
mark) runs  away. 

Younger  Brother  All>crt  Knr-Mainz,  whom  Ilnttcn  celebrated  ;  horn  1490; 
Archbishop  of  .Magdeburg  .ami  H.ill>erstadt  1513,  of  Mainz  1314;  died 
1545 :  set  Tetzel,  and  the  Indulgence,  on  foot. 

G°.  JoAcniM  II.  (Hector):  9th  January,  150.'> :  llth  July,  VyiVi; 
Jil  January.  1571.  Sword  drawn  on  Alba  once.  Erlnerhriiderung  with 
Liegiiitz.     Staircase  at  Grimnitz.     A  weighty  industrious  Kurfiirst. 

Declared  himself  Protestant.  1539.  First  Wife  (mother  of  his  Successor) 
was  Daughter  to  Duke  George  of  Saxony,  Luther's  "  If  it  rained  Duke 
Georges."  —  Johann  of  Custrin  was  a  yoimger  Brother  of  his :  died  ten 
days  after  Joachim  ;  left  no  Son. 


Gcncalofjical  Diagram  :    7  i 


;y  Kinfiirst  (1471-1  48fi), 
AlUIJUT    ACIIILLKH. 


Elder  Culm  5 


Fkieuuicm,  second  son  of  KuirUrst  Anx>rt  Achilles,  younger  Brother  of 
a  yoiiiigiT  Brother.  Born  14Gn  ;  got  Aii^ixuh  listj  ;  Biiireiith  1495  ;  follov 
a  Polish  Wife  ;  from  whom  came  interests  in  Huugiiry  as  well  as  Poland  to 


1.  t'AsiMiR,  who  got  Biiircuth 
(1515):  l)om  1481;  died  1527. 
Very  truculent  in  the  IVusauLs' 
War. 


Al.np.KT  Alcibiiuix  .•  a  man  of 
fjrejit  mark  in  liis  day  (1522- 
1557);  never  niarrit-d.  Two  Sis- 
ters, with  one  of  whom  he  took 
shelter  ut  lost;  no  Brother. 


2.  Geouok  tiik  Tiors,  who  got  A,i 
got  Jiigerndorf,  hy  purchase,  from  Ic- 
l.'»24.      Protestant  declared,  1528;    iin 
Histories   thenceforth.     Tlie   fJeorgi' 
One  Son, 


1th  Knr/ursf  (ir)71-ly98), 
Jon  ANN  (Jeokgj:. 


Geoi:i;k  Fkikduicii  :  lK>rii  153l>;  h 
Cousin  iKcame  incomjietent;  die<l  I'li- 
and  Jiig>  niflorf;  also  to  his  Cousin  Al 
left  a  minor  (boy  of  4,  as  the  n^adcr  - 
a  little  while:  from  wliich  cj\me  gnat  ■ 
have  come^had  not  Kurfiirst  Joai  li 
his  Indialf.     tieorge  Friedricli  got  ;i; 
liand:   Anspach  ami   liaireuth  uniin) 
Katilwr  and  OpiK-hi  were  much  eat' : 
in  that  <iuarter.     Died  1603,   withmit 
ritories  all  reverted  to  the  main  Bmi 
George  Seventli  Kurfiirst,  or  liis  r<pic 
Bond ;  anil  the  "  Elder  Culmbach  Lini 


Younger  C't 


Kurfiirst  Johann  George  settled  Baircnth  and  Anspaeli  on  Two  of  his  ^' 
Pair  of  Liiu's).  Jiigerndorf  the  new  Kurfiirst,  Joachim  Friedrich,  kept ;  s' 
and  Ansjiach,  and  some  indication  of  their  "  Lines,"  so  far  as  important  t' 


Baireuth. 

(1.)  Cnr.TSTLVN,  second  son  of  Kurfiirst  Johann  George:  bom 
15S1  ;  gr)t  Baireuth  1603  ;  died  1655.  A  distinguished  Governor 
in  his  snhere.  Had  two  sons  ;  the  elder  died  brfore  liim,  but  left 
a  son,  Cnristian  Enist  ;  wlio  (2.)  succeeded,  and  (3.)  wliosc  son, 
George  Wilhelm  :  1644,  1655,  1712;  1678,  1712,  1726  {iirc  birth, 
accessio7i,  end  of  these  two)  ;  the  latter  of  whom  had  no  son  that 
lived. 

V[Ktn  which  the  posterity  of  Christian's  second  son  succeeded. 
Second  son  of  Christian  notable  to  us  in  two  little  wfiys  : 

First,  That  hr,  George  Albert,  Margraf  of  C«/mbach,  is  the  in- 
scrutable "  Manjuis  dc  Lulcnhach  "  of  Bromley  s  Letters  (antea 
p.  184,  let  the  Commcutatoi-s  take  comfort  I) : 

Second  and  better.  That  from  him  came  our  little  "Wilhelmina's 
Husband,  —  as  will  be  afterwards  explained.  It  was  his  grandson 
(4.)  that  succeeded  in  Baireuth.  George  Friedrich  Kari  (1688.  1726, 
1735);  Father  of  "Wilhelmina's  Husband.  After  whom  (5.)  his  Son 
Friedrich  (1711,  1735,  1763),  Wilhelmina's  Husband  ;  who  leaving 
(1763)  nothing  but  a  daughter,  Baireuth  fell  to  Anspach,  1769,  after 
an  old  Uncle  (6.),  childless,  had  also  died. 

Six  Baireuth  Margraves  of  tliis  Line  ;  five  generations  ;  and  then 
to  Anspach,  in  1769. 


(1 
pac 


tain 

Ye^' 

Snv 

til.- 

It;:: 
few. 
par 
Wil 

thi: 
/ 

has 

S. 
left 
Wi! 

unii 
rifl, 
CLii 
has 


e 


Two   Culmhadi  Lines. 


•w  Line. 

:u UK'S  Cicero,  got  Culmhnch  :  Ansparh  first,  then  Bjiirenth  on  the  dciith  of 
Max  in  lii.s  Vciuliitii  Cuinpiiiij)!,  IfjUS  ;  ft-ll  imbecile  1515  ;  iliril  1536.  ILiJ 
:Lil(lren.     Friedrich  had  Tliree  notable  Suns, 


(l.M.-.):  born  14S4;  died  1543; 
tliri's  Ilunjf-.uiiin  conueetiun, 
iikis  hononiljlo  figure  in  tlie 
vaisi-r    Karl's    ^' Nit-Kop-ah." 


3.  AiJiKiiT  ;  Ixn-n  1490  ;  Iloehmeistcrof 
the  Teutseh  Kitters,  1511;  declares  him- 
self Protestjint,  and  Duke  of  Prussia,  1525; 
died  15<>8. 


to  administer  Preussen  when 
Itir  to  his  Father  in  Ansjuidt 
id<  -;  in  h'ainnith.      Had  Iven 

Alcibiades  his  (Juardian  for 
ultics,  and  uiijvist  ruin  would 
lH*n  hcljiful  and  vigorous  in 
h  most  of  his  Territories  into 

.lagcrndorf  too,  except  that 
}  liv  the  Imperial  chicaneries 
Idnn;  —  upon  whicii  his  Ter- 
burg  line,  namely,  to  Johann 
ativi's,  according  to  the  Oira 
ad  c'lided  in  this  manner. 


One  Son,  Ai.nKPa"  FuiEnnicn:  born  1553; 
follows  a-s  Duke  1563,  declared  vielanchnUc 
1573;  die<l  H;i8.  HisCousiu  (Jeorge  Fried- 
rich  administered  ft)r  him  till  1003;  after 
which  .loachim  Friedrich;  and  then,  lastly, 
Joachim  Friedrich's  Son,  Johann  Sigis- 
mund,  the  Ninth  Kurfiii-st.  Had  married 
the  Heiress  of  C'leve  (whence  came  a  cele- 
brated Clove  Controversy  in  after-times). 
No  son ;  a  good  many  daughters  ;  eldest  of 
whom  w:us  married  to  Kurfiirst  Johann  Sig- 
ismund;  from  her  came  the  con tnj verted 
Cleve  ProjKTty. 


\cii  Line. 

T  Sons,  who  nre  Founders  of  the  "Younger  Oulmbach  Line  "  (Split  IJne  or 
it  "11  o)ii>  (if  liis  younger  sons.     Here  are  the  two  new  Fouudei"s  in  Baireuth 

t  pri*<enr  : 

loAcitiM  Kr.NST,  third  son  of  Kurfiirst  Johann  George  :  bom  1583  ;  got  Ans- 
03  ;  died  1625.  Had  military  tendencies,  experiences  ;  did  not  thrive  as  Cap- 
thc  Evitngdicol  Union  (li!li»-1620)  when  Jf'intcr-King  came  up  and  Thirty- 
Cm-  along  with  him.  Left  two  sons  ;  elder  of  whom,  (2. )  Friedrich,  nominally 
^n,  age  still  only  eighteen,  fell  in  the  Battle  of  Xiirdlingen  (worst  battle  of 
rtv-Years  War,  1634);  and  the  j'oungerof  whom,  (3.)  .Vlbert,  succeeded  (1620, 
667).  and  his  son,  (4.)  Johann  Frietlrich  (1654,  1667,  1686):  and  (5,  6,  7.)  no 
lan  three  grandsons,  — ehOdren  mostlv,  though  entitled  "sovereign"  —  in  a 
way  (Christian -Ubert,  1675,  16S6,  1692  ;  George  Friedrich,  1678,  1692,  1703  ; 
a  Fiiedrich,  1685,  1703,  1723).     Two  little  points  notable  here  also,  and  no 

,  That  one  of  the  gvandi-daughters,  full-sister  of  the  last  of  these  three  parallel 
half-sister  of  the  two  former,  was  —  Queen  Caroline,  George  IL's  wife,  who 
1  some  fame  with  us. 

d.  That  the  youngest  of  said  three  grandsons.  Queen  Caroline's  full-brother, 
m  then  minor,  who  bectime  major,  (8.)  and  wedded  a  Sister  of  our  dear  little 
niiia's,  of  whom  we  shall  hear  (Karl  Wilhelm  Friedrich,  1712,  1723,  1757); 
entDus  ilargraf  otherwise.  His  and  her  one  son  it  was,  (9.)  Christian  Fried- 
irl  Alexander  (1736,  1757,  1806),  who  inherited  Baireuth,  inherited  Actress 
,  Lady  Craven,  and  at  Hammersmith  (House  once  Bubb  Doddington's,  if  that 
charm)  ended  the  affair. 
Anspach  Margraves  ;  in^w  generations  :  end,  1806. 


ruAP.  XX.        DEATH  OF   KING  FRIEDRICII  I.  309 

1520-1713. 

7°.  JoHANN  George:  11th  September,  152.5;  3(1  January,  l.'jTl ; 
8th  January,  1598.  Canuou-shot,  at  Siege  of  Wittenberg,  upon  Kaiser 
Karl  and  him.     Gera  Bond. 

Married  a  Silesian  Duke  of  Liegnitz's  Danghtor  (result  of  the  Erhverhruder- 
uni/  there,  —  Antea,  p.  2.31 ).  Had  twenty-tlireo  children.  It  wa,s  to  Idni 
that  Baireuth  and  Auspacli  fell  liome  :  lie  settled  tiiem  on  his  second 
aud  liis  third  sons,  Cliristian  and  Joachim  Ernst ;  founders  of  the  New 
Line  of  Baireuth  and  Ansj)ach.     (See  Genealogical  Diagram,  p.  309a.) 

8°.  Joachim  Fkieuuicii  :  27th  January,  1.54G;  8th  January,  1598; 
18th  July,  10U8.  Archbishop  of  Magdeburg  first  of  all,  — to  keep  tho 
jdace  iilled.  Joachimsthal  School  at  old  Castle  of  Grimnitz.  Very 
vigilant  for  Preusseu;  which  was  near  falliug  due. 

Two  of  his  Younger  Sons,  Johann  George  (1577-1624)  to  whom  ho  gave 
Jdijenidoif,  and  that  Arcid)ishop  of  Magdchurg,  who  was  present  in 
Tilly's  storm,  got  botli  wrecked  in  the  Thirty-Years  War;  —  not  with- 
out results,  in  the  Jagerndorf  case. 

9°.  JoHAXN  Sioismund:  8th  November,  1572;  18th  July,  1008; 
2.'3d  December,  l(il9.     Preusseu  :  Cleve;  Slap  on  the  face  to  Neuburg. 

10°.  George  Wiliielm  :  3d  November,  1595;  22d  November, 
ini9;  21st  November,  ItUO.  The  unf»)rtunate  of  the  Thirty-Years 
War.     ''  Que  f aire  ;  Us  ont  cles  canons  !  " 

11°.  Friedricji  Wilhelm  :  6th  February,  1620;  21st  November, 
1640  ;  29th  April,  1688.     The  Great  Elector. 

12°.  Friedrich  III.:  1st  July,  1657;  29th  April,  1688;  25th 
Februarj,  iri3.     Fii-st  King  (18th  January,  1701). 


BOOK    lY. 

FRIEDRICirS  APPRENTICESHIP,  FIRST   STAGE. 
1713-1723. 


CHAPTER  I. 

CHILDHOOD  :    DOUBLE   EDUCATIONAL   ELEMENT. 

Of  Friedrich's  childhood,  there  is  not,  after  all  our  reading, 
much  that  it  would  interest  the  English  public  to  hear  tell  of. 
Perhaps  not  much  of  knowable  that  deserves  anywhere  to  be 
known.  Books  on  it,  expressly  handling  it,  and  Books  on 
Friedrieh  Wilhelm's  Court  and  History,  of  which  it  is  always 
a  main  element,  are  not  wanting :  but  they  are  mainly  of  the 
sad  sort  which,  with  pain  and  difficulty,  teach  us  nothing. 
Books  done  by  pedants  and  tcnebrific  persons,  under  the  name 
of  men ;  dwelling  not  on  things,  but,  at  endless  length,  on  the 
outer  husks  of  things :  of  unparalleled  confusion,  too ;  —  not 
so  much  as  an  Index  granted  you ;  to  the  poor  half-peck  of 
cinders,  hidden  in  these  wagon-loads  of  ashes,  no  sieve  al- 
lowed !  Books  tending  really  to  fill  the  mind  with  mere  dust- 
whirlwinds,  —  if  the  mind  did  not  straightway  blow  them  out 
again ;  which  it  docs.  Of  these  let  us  say  nothing.  Seldom 
had  so  curious  a  Phenomenon  worse  treatment  from  the  Dry- 
asdust sjiecies. 

Among  these  Books,  touching  on  Friedrich's  childhood,  and 
treating  of  his  Father's  Court,  there  is  hardly  above  one  that 
we  can  characterize  as  fairly  human  :  the  Book  written  by  his 
little  Sister  Wilhelmiua,  when  she  grew  to  size  and  knowledge 


Chap.  I.     CHILDHOOD :    EDUCATIONAL   ELEMENT.  311 

I7ia-1723. 

of  good  and  evil ;  ^  —  and  this,  of  what  flighty  uncertain  na- 
ture it  is,  the  world  partly  knows.  A  human  Book,  however, 
not  a  pedant  one :  there  is  a  most  shrill  female  soul  busy  with 
intense  earnestness  here ;  looking,  and  teaching  us  to  look. 
We  find  it  a  veracious  Book,  done  with  heart,  and  from  eye- 
sight and  insight;  of  a  veracity  deeper  than  the  superficial 
sort.  It  is  full  of  mistakes,  indeed ;  and  exaggerates  dread- 
fully, in  its  shrill  female  way ;  but  is  above  intending  to  de- 
ceive :  deduct  the  due  subtrahend,  —  say  perhaps  twenty -five 
pep  cent,  or  in  extreme  cases  as  high  as  seventy-five,  —  you 
will  get  some  human  image  of  credible  actualities  from  Wil- 
lielmina.  Practically  she  is  our  one  resource  on  this  matter. 
Of  the  strange  King  Friedrich  Wilhelm  and  his  strange  Court, 
with  such  an  Ileir-Apparent  growing  up  in  it,  there  is  no  real 
light  to  be  had,  except  what  Wilhelmina  gives,  —  or  kindles 
dark  Books  of  others  into  giving.  For  that,  too,  on  long 
study,  is  the  result  of  her,  here  and  there.  With  so  flickery 
a  wax-taper  held  over  Friedrich's  childhood,  —  and  the  other 
dirty  tallow-dips  all  going  out  in  intolerable  odor, — judge  if 
our  success  can  be  very  triumphant ! 

We  perceive  the  little  creature  has  got  much  from  Mature  ; 
not  the  big  arena  only,  but  fine  inward  gifts,  for  he  is  well- 
born in  more  senses  than  one  ;  — and  that  in  the  breeding  of 
him  there  are  two  elements  noticeable,  widely  diverse :  the 
French  and  the  German.  This  is  perhaps  the  chief  peculiar- 
ity ;  best  worth  laying  hold  of,  with  the  due  comprehension,  if 
our  means  allow. 

First  Educational  Element,  the  French  one. 

His  nurses,  governesses,  simultaneous  and  successive,  mostly 
of  French  breed,  are  duly  set  down  in  the  Prussian  Books,  and 
held  in  mind  as  a  point  of  duty  by  Prussian  men;  but,  in 
foreign  parts,  cannot  be  considered  otherwise  than  as  a  group, 
and  merely  with  generic  features.     He  had  a  Frau  von  Ka- 

1  Me'moires  de  Fr&lerique  Sophie  Wilhelmine  de  Prusse,  Margrave  de  Bareitk 
(Brunswick,  Paris  et  Londres,  1812),  2  vols.  8vo. 


312  JUS   AI'l'KKN  ricKSllIl'    FIRST  STAGE.      H-'k  IV. 

17i;j-17;i.J. 

meeke  for  Head  G<jverness,  —  the  lady  whom  Wilhelniina,  in 
her  famed  Me  moires,  always  writes  Kamken  ;  and  of  whom, 
except  the  tloaliiig  gossip  found  in  that  l>ook,  tliere  is  noth- 
ing to  be  remembered.  Under  her,  as  praetieal  superintend- 
ent, Sous-ijouvernante  and  quasi- mother,  was  the  Dame  de 
IvoueouUes,  a  more  important  person  for  us  here.  Uame  do 
KoucouUes,  onee  de  Montbail,  the  same  respectable  Edict-of- 
2«i antes  Frencli  lady  who,  tive-aud-twenty  years  ago,  had  taken 
similar  charge  of  Friedrieh  Wilhelm  ;  a  lact  that  speaks  wlII 
for  the  character  of  her  i>erformance  in  that  otiice.  She  luul 
done  her  first  edition  of  a  Prussian  Prince  in  a  satisfactory 
manner  ;  and  not  without  difficult  lU'ciilents  and  singularities, 
as  we  liave  heard :  the  like  of  which  were  sjiared  her  in  this 
her  second  edition  (so  we  may  call  it) ;  a  second  and,  in  all 
manner  of  ways,  an  improved  one.  The  young  Fritz  swal- 
lowed no  shoe-buckles;  did  not  leap  out  of  window,  hanging  on 
by  the  hands ;  nor  achieve  anything  of  turbulent,  or  otherwise 
memorable,  in  liis  infantine  history;  the  course  of  which  was 
in  general  smooth,  and  runs,  happily  for  it,  below  the  ken  of 
rumor.  The  Boy,  it  is  said,  and  is  easily  credible,  was  of  ex- 
traordinary vivax'ity  ;  quirk  in  api»rehending  all  things,  and 
gracefully  relating  himself  to  them.  One  of  the  prettiest, 
vividest  little  Iniys ;  with  eyes,  with  mind  and  ways,  of  un- 
common brilliancy;  —  only  he  takes  less  to  soldiering  than 
the  ])aternal  heart  could  wish ;  and  appears  to  find  other 
things  in  the  world  fully  as  notable  as  loud  drums,  and 
stiff  men  drawn  up  in  rows.  Moreover,  he  is  apt  to  be  a 
little  unhealthy  now  and  then,  and  requires  care  from  his 
nurses,  over  whom  the  judicious  Roucoulles  has  to  be  very 
vigilant. 

Of  this  respectable  Madame  de  Roucoulles  I  have  read,  at 
least  seven  times,  what  the  Prussian  Books  say  of  her  by  way 
of  Biography ;  but  it  is  always  given  in  their  dull  tombstone 
style  ;  it  has  moreover  next  to  no  importance  ;  and  I,  —  alas, 
I  do  not  yet  too  well  remember  it !  She  was  from  Normandy  ; 
of  gentle  blood,  never  very  rich;  Protestant,  in  the  Edict-of- 
Nantes  time  ;  and  had  to  fly  her  country,  a  young  widow,  with 
daughter   and  mother-in-law  hanging   on   her  ;  the  whole  of 


Chap.  I.      CHILDHOOD :  EDUCATIONAL  ELEMENT.         313 

ni.i-iii-i. 

them  almost  penniless.  However,  she  was  kindly  received  at 
the  Court  of  Berlin,  as  usual  in  that  satl  case ;  and  got  some 
practical  help  towards  living  in  her  new  country.  Queen 
Sophie  Churl' )tte  had  liked  her  society  ;  and  finding  her  of 
]»rudt'ut  intelligent  turn,  and  with  the  style  of  manners  suita- 
ble, had  given  her  Friedrich  Wilhelm  to  take  charge  of.  She 
was  at  that  time  Madame  de  Montbail ;  widow,  as  we  said: 
she  afterwards  wedded  Koucoulles,  a  refugee  gentleman  of  her 
own  Nation,  who  had  gone  into  the  Prussian  Army,  as  was 
eouimou  for  the  like  of  him.  She  had  again  become  a  widow, 
Madame  de  Koucoulles  this  time,  with  her  daughter  Montbail 
still  about  her,  when,  by  the  grateful  good  sense  of  Friedrich 
^Vilhelm,  she  was  again  intrusted  as  we  see ;  —  and  so  had  the 
honor  of  governessing  Frederick  the  Great  for  the  first  seven 
years  of  his  life.  Respectable  lady,  she  oversaw  his  nurses, 
pap-boats,  —  *M>ecr-soup  and  bread,"  he  himsi'lf  tells  us  once, 
was  his  main  diet  in  boyhood, — beer-soups,  dress-frocks,  first 
attempts  at  walking ;  and  then  also  his  little  bits  of  intellec- 
tualities, moralities  ;  his  incipieneies  of  speech,  demeanor,  and 
spiritual  development ;  and  did  her  function  very  honestly, 
there  is  no  doubt. 

"Wilhelm ina.  mentions  her,  at  a  subsequent  period;  and  we 
have  a  glimpse  of  this  same  Koucoulles,  gliding  about  among 
the  royal  young-folk,  "  with  only  one  tooth  left  "  (figuratively 
speaking),  and  somewhat  given  to  tattle,  in  Princess  Wilhel- 
mina's  opinion.  Grown  very  old  now,  poor  lady ;  and  the 
dreadfulest  bore,  when  she  gets  upon  Hanover  and  her  experi- 
ences, and  Queen  Sophie  Charlotte's,  in  that  stupendously 
magnificent  court  under  Gentleman  Ernst.  Shun  that  topic, 
if  you  love  your  peace  of  mind!^  —  She  did  certainly  superin- 
tend the  Boy  Fritzkin  for  his  first  seven  years ;  that  is  a  glory 
that  cannot  be  taken  from  her.  And  her  pupil,  too,  we  agree- 
ably perceive,  was  always  grateful  for  her  services  in  that 
capacit}'.  Once  a  week,  if  he  were  in  Berlin,  during  his 
youthful  time,  he  was  sure  to  appear  at  the  Eoucoulles  Soiree, 
and  say  and  look  various  pleasant  things  to  his  "  cher  Maman 
(dear  Mamma),"  as  he  used  to  call  her,  and  to  the  respectable 

1  He  moires  (above  cited). 


314  HIS  APPRENTICESHIP,  FIRST  STAGE.     Bu„k  IV. 

'  1713-172;J. 

small  j)arty  she  had.  Not  to  s])eak  of  other  more  substantial 
services,  which  also  were  not  wanting. 

lioucoulles  and  the  other  female  souls,  mainly  French,  among 
whom  the  incipient  Fritz  now  was,  appear  to  have  done  their 
l)art  as  well  as  could  be  looked  for.  Respectable  Edict-of- 
Nantes  French  latlies,  with  high  head-gear,  wiile  hoops ;  a 
clear,  correct,  but  somewhat  barren  and  meagre  species,  tight- 
laced  and  high-frizzled  in  mind  and  body.  It  is  not  a  very 
fertile  element  for  a  young  soul :  not  very  much  of  silent  piety 
in  it ;  and  perhaps  of  vocal  piety  more  than  enough  in  propor- 
tion. An  element  founding  on  what  they  call  "  enlightened 
Protestantism,"  ''  freedom  of  thought,"  and  the  like,  which  is 
apt  to  become  loquacious,  and  too  conscious  of  itself;  tending, 
on  the  whole,  rather  to  contempt  of  tlie  false,  than  to  deep  or 
very  effective  recognition  of  the  true. 

But  it  is,  in  some  important  senses,  a  clear  and  pure  element 
withal.  At  lowest,  there  are  no  conscious  semi-falsities,  or 
vohmteer  hypocrisies,  tauglit  the  poor  Boy ;  honcjr,  clearness, 
truth  of  word  at  least ;  a  decorous  dignified  bearing ;  various 
thin  good  things,  are  honestly  inculcated  and  exemplilied ; 
nor  is  any  bad,  ungraceful  or  suspicious  thing  permitted  there, 
if  recognized  for  such.  It  raiglit  have  been  a  worse  element; 
and  we  nnist  be  thankful  for  it.  Friedrich,  through  life, 
carries  deej)  traces  of  this  French-Protestant  incipiency  :  a 
very  big  wide-branching  royal  tree,  in  the  end ;  but  as  small 
and  flexible  a  seedling  once  as  any  one  of  us. 

The  good  old  Dame  de  lioucoulles  just  lived  to  witness  his 
accession ;  on  which  grand  juncture  and  afterwards,  as  he  had 
done  before,  he  continued  to  express,  in  grace  fid  and  useful 
ways,  his  gratitude  and  honest  aiTection  to  her  and  hers.  Tea- 
services,  presents  in  cut-glass  and  other  kinds,  with  Letters 
that  were  still  more  precious  to  the  old  Lady,  had  come 
always  at  due  intervals :  and  one  of  his  earliest  kingly  gifts 
was  that  of  some  suitable  small  pension  for  jNIontbail,  the 
elderly  daughter  of  this  poor  old  Roucoulles,^  who  was  just 

^  Preuss,  Friedrich  der  Grosse,  eine  Lehensqeschichte  (5  vols.  Berlin,  1832- 
1834),  V.  (Urkandenbnch,  p.  4).  CEncrps  de  Fr^d€ric  (same  Preiiss's  Eflition, 
Berlin.  1840-1850,  &c.).  xvi.   184,  191.  — The  Herr  Doctor  J.  I).  E.  rrcu.^s, 


Chap.  I.      (^HLDHOOD :  EDUCATIONAL  ELEMENT.         315 

singing  her  Dimittas,  as  it  were,  still  in  a  blithe  and  pious 
manner.  For  she  saw  now  (in  174U)  her  little  nursling  grown 
to  be  a  brilliant  man  and  King ;  King  gone  out  to  the  Wars, 
too,  with  all  Europe  inquiring  and  wondering  what  the  issue 
would  be.  As  lor  her,  she  closed  her  poor  old  eyes,  at  this 
stage  of  the  business ;  piously,  in  foreign  parts,  far  from  her 
native  Normandy  ;  and  did  not  see  farther  what  the  issue  was. 
Good  old  Dame,  I  have,  as  was  observed,  read  some  seven 
times  over  what  they  call  biographical  accounts  of  her ;  but 
have  seven  times  (by  Heaven's  favor,  I  do  partly  believe) 
mostly  forgotten  them  again;  and  would  not,  without  cause, 
inflict  on  any  reader  the  like  sorrow.  To  remember  one 
worthy  thing,  how  many  thousand  unworthy  things  must  a 
man  be  able  to  forgiit ! 

From  this  Edict-of-Xantes  environment,  which  taught  our 
young  Fritz  his  first  lessons  of  human  behavior, — a  jtolite 
sharp  little  Boy,  we  do  hope  and  understand, — he  learned 
also  to  clothe  his  bits  of  notions,  emotions,  and  garrulous 
utterabilities,  in  the  French  dialect.  Learned  to  speak,  and 
likewise,  what  is  more  important,  to  think,  in  French  ;  which 
was  otherwise  quite  domesticated  in  the  Palace,  and  became 
his  second  mother-tongue.  Not  a  bad  dialect ;  yet  also  none 
of  the  best.  Very  lean  and  shallow,  if  very  clear  and  con- 
venient; leaving  much  in  poor  Fritz  unuttered,  unthought, 
unpractised,  which  might  otherwise  have  come  into  activity 
in  the  course  of  his  life.  He  learned  to  read  very  soon,  I 
presume ;  but  he  did  not,  now  or  afterwards,  ever  learn  to 
spell.  He  spells  indeed  dreadfully  ill,  at  his  first  appearance 
on  the  writing  stage,  as  we  shall  see  by  and  by ;  and  he  con- 
tinued, to  the  last,  one  of  the  bad  spellers  of  his  day.     A  cir- 

"  Historiographer  of  Brandenburg,"  devoted  wholly  to  the  study  of  Friedrich 
for  five-aud-twcuty  years  past,  and  for  above  a  dozen  years  busily  engaged  in 
editing  the  CEunesde  Frederic,  — has,  besides  that  Lehensgeschtchle  just  citid, 
three  or  four  smaller  Books,  of  indistinctly  different  titles,  on  the  same  subject. 
A  meritoriously  exact  man  ;  acquainted  with  the  outer  details  of  Friedrich's 
Biography  (had  he  any  way  of  arranging,  organizing  or  setting  them  forth)  as 
few  men  ever  were  or  will  be.  We  shall  mean  always  this  Lebensgeschichle 
here,  when  no  other  title  is  given ;  and  CEuvres  de  Frederic  shall  signify  his 
Edition,  unless  the  contrary  be  stated. 


316  HIS   APPRENTICESHIP,  FIRST   STAGE.     BnoK  iv. 

17i;m7'2;j. 

cumstance  whirli  I  never  can  fully  account  for,  and  will  leave 

to  the  reader's  study. 

From  all  manner  of  sources,  —  from  inferior  valetaille,  Prus- 
sian Otticials,  Royal  Majesty  itself  when  not  in  gala,  —  he 
learned,  not  less  rootedly,  the  currui)t  Prussian  dialect  of 
German  ;  and  used  the  same,  all  his  days,  among  his  soldiers, 
native  officials,  common  subjects  and  wherever  it  was  most 
convenient;  siu-aking  it,  and  writing  ami  misspelling  it,  with 
great  freedom,  though  always  with  a  certain  aversion  ;uid 
unilisguised  contempt,  which  has  since  brought  him  blame  in 
some  (piarters.  It  is  true,  the  I'russian  form  of  German  is  but 
rude  ;  and  probably  Friedrich,  except  sometimes  in  Luther's 
liible,  never  read  any  German  Book.  What,  if  we  will  think 
of  it,  could  he  know  of  his  first  mother-tongue  ! '  German,  to 
this  day,  is  a  frightful  dialect  for  the  stupid,  the  pedant  and 
dullard  sort !  Only  in  the  hands  of  the  gifted  does  it  become 
supremely  good.  It  hatl  not  yet  been  the  language  of  any 
Goethe,  any  Lessing ;  though  it  stood  on  the  eve  of  becoming 
such.  It  ha«l  already  been  the  language  of  Luther,  of  Ulrich 
llutten.  Frii'drich  Uarbarossa,  Charlemagne  and  others.  And 
several  extremely  important  things  had  been  said  in  it,  and 
some  pleasant  ones  even  sung  in  it,  from  .an  old  date,  in  a  very 
a])propriate  manner, — had  Crown-Prince  Friedrich  known  all 
that.  But  he  could  not  reasonably  Ije  expected  to  know:  — 
and  the  wiser  Germans  now  forgive  him  for  not  knowing,  and 
are  even  thankful  that  he  did  not. 


CHAPTER  XL 

THE   GERM.AJX   ELEMENT. 

So  that,  as  we  said,  there  are  two  elements  for  young  Fritz, 
and  highly  diverse  ones,  from  both  of  which  he  is  to  draw 
nourishment,  and  assimilate  what  he  can.  Besides  that  Edict- 
of-Xautes  French  element,  and  in  continual  contact  and  con- 


Chap.  U.  THE  GERMAN  ELEMENT.  317 

17i;i-17-2.). 

trast  with  it,  which  prevails  chiefly  in  the  Female  Quarters  of 
the  I'alace,  —  tliere  is  the  native  German  element  for  young 
Fritz,  of  which  the  centre  is  Papa,  now  come  to  be  King,  and 
powerfully  manifesting  himself  as  such.  An  abrupt  peremp- 
tory young  King ;  and  German  to  the  bone.  Along  with  whom, 
companions  to  him  in  his  social  hours,  and  fellow-workers  in 
his  business,  are  a  set  of  very  rugged  German  sons  of  Nature  ; 
dift'ering  much  from  the  French  sons  of  Ai-t.  Baron  Grunikow, 
Leopold  Prince  of  Anhalt-Dessau  (not  yet  called  the  "  Old 
Deesauer,"  being  under  forty  yet).  General  Glasenap,  Colonel 
Derschau,  General  Flans ;  these,  and  the  other  nameless  Gen- 
erals and  Officials,  are  a  curious  counterpart  to  the  Camases, 
the  Ilautcharmoys  and  Forcadcs,  with  their  niml)le  tongues 
and  rapiers;  still  more  to  the  Beausobres,  Achards,  full  of 
ecclesiastical  logic,  made  of  Payle  and  Calvin  kneaded  to- 
gether; and  to  the  high-frizzled  ladies  rustling  in  stiff  silk, 
with  the  shadow  of  Versailles  and  of  the  Dragonnades  alike 
present  to  them. 

Born  Hyperboreans  these  others;  rough  as  hemp,  and  stout 
of  Hbre  as  hemp;  native  products  of  the  rigorous  North.  Of 
whom,  after  all  our  reading,  we  know  little.  —  O  Heaven,  they 
have  had  long  lines  of  rugged  ancestors,  cast  in  the  same  rude 
stalwart  nutuld,  and  leading  their  rough  life  there,  of  whom 
we  know  absolutely  nothing !  Dumb  all  those  preceding  busy 
generations ;  and  this  of  Friedrich  Wilhelm  is  grown  almost 
dumb.  Grim  semi-articulate  Prussian  men  ;  gone  all  to  pipe-clay 
and  mustache  for  us.  Strange  blond-complexioned,  not  nnbeau- 
tiful  Prussian  honorable  women,  in  hoops,  brocades,  and  unin- 
telligible head-gear  and  hair-towers,  —  ach  Gott,  they  too  are 
gone ;  and  their  musical  talk,  in  the  French  or  German  language, 
that  also  is  gone ;  and  the  hollow  Eternities  have  swallowed  it, 
as  their  wont  is,  in  a  very  surprising  manner !  — 

Grumkow,  a  cunning,  greedy-hearted,  long-headed  fellow,  of 
the  old  Pomeranian  Nobility  by  birth,  has  a  kind  of  superficial 
polish  put  upon  his  Hyperboreanisms ;  he  has  been  in  foreign 
countries,  doing  legations,  diplomacies,  for  which,  at  least  for 
the  vulpine  parts  of  which,  he  has  a  turn.  He  writes  and 
speaks  articulate  grammatical  French;  but  neither  in  that,  nor 


318  IIIS  APPRENTICES! 1 11',    TIUST   STAP.E.     Book  IV. 

17i;i-17-23. 

in  native  Poramerish  Platt-Deutsch,  does  he  show  us  much, 
except  the  depths  of  Ins  own  greed,  of  his  own  astucities  and 
stealthy  audacities.  Of  which  we  shall  hear  more  than  enough 
by  and  by. 

Of  the  Desmuer,  not   i/rt  '*  Old.'' 

As  to  the  Prince  of  Anhalt-Dessau,  rugged  man,  whose  very 
face  is  the  color  of  guni»nwd(>r,  he  also  knows  French,  and  can 
even  write  in  it,  if  he  like,  —  having  «luly  had  a  Tutor  of  that 
nation,  and  strange  adventures  with  him  on  the  grand  tour  and 
elsewhere;  —  but  does  not  much  jtractise  writing,  wlu'U  it  can 
be  helped.  His  children,  I  have  heard,  he  expressly  did  not 
teach  to  read  or  write,  seeing  no  benefit  in  that  effeminate  art, 
Imt  left  them  to  j)i<k  it  up  as  they  could.  His  I'rincess,  all 
rightly  ennoliled  now,  —  whom  he  would  not  but  Inarry,  though 
sent  on  the  grand  tour  to  avoid  it,  —  was  the  daughter  of  one 
Fos  an  Apothecary  at  Dessau;  and  is  still  a  beautiful  and  ])ru- 
dent  kind  of  woman,  who  seems  to  suit  him  widl  enough,  no 
worse  than  if  she  had  been  born  a  Princess.  Much  talk  has 
lx>en  of  her,  in  princely  and  other  circles ;  nor  is  his  marriage 
the  only  strange  thing  Leopold  has  done.  He  is  a  man  to  keep 
the  world's  tongue  wagging,  not  too  musically  always ;  though 
liimself  of  very  unvocal  nature.  Perhaps  the  biggest  mass  of 
inarticulate  human  vitality,  certainly  one  of  the  biggest,  then 
going  about  in  the  world.  A  man  of  vast  dumb  faculty  ;  dumb, 
but  fertile,  deep ;  no  end  of  ingenuities  in  the  rough  head  of 
him :  —  as  much  mother-wit  there,  I  often  guess,  as  could  l>e 
found  in  whole  talking  parliaments,  spouting  themselves  away 
in  vocables  and  eloquent  wind ! 

A  man  of  dreadful  impetuosity  withal.  Set  upon  his  will 
as  the  one  law  of  Nature  ;  storming  forward  with  incontrollable 
violence:  a  very  whirlwind  of  a  man.  He  was  left  a  minor; 
his  ^lother  guardian.  Nothing  could  prevent  him  from  marry- 
ing this  Fos  the  Apothecar^^'s  Daughter ;  no  tears  nor  contri- 
vances of  his  Mother,  whom  he  much  loved,  and  who  took 
skilful  measures.  Fourteen  months  of  travel  in  Italy ;  grand 
tour,  with  eligible  French  Tutor,  —  whom  he  once  drew  sword 
upon,  getting  some  rebuke  from  him  one  night  in  Venice,  and 


CnAP.  II.  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT.  319 

i7i;j-  ii-si. 

would  have  killeil,  had  not  the  man  been  nimble,  at  once  dex- 
terous and  sublime  :  —  it  availed  not.  The  first  thing  he  did, 
on  re-entering  Dessau,  with  his  Tutor,  was  to  call  at  Apothecary 
Fos's,  and  see  the  charming  ^lamsell ;  to  go  and  see  his  ^lother, 
was  the  second  thing.  Not  even  his  grand  passion  for  war 
could  eradicate  Fos  :  he  went  to  Dutch  William's  wars ;  the 
wise  mother  still  counselling,  who  was  own  aunt  to  Dutch 
"William,  and  liked  the  scheme.  He  besieged  Namur;  I'ought 
and  besieged  up  and  down,  —  with  insatiable  appetite  for 
lii^iting  and  sieging ;  with  great  honor,  too,  and  ambitions 
awakening  in  him; — canijiaign  alter  campaign:  but  along 
with  the  ilamy-thundory  ideal  bride,  figuratively  called  Bellona, 
there  was  always  a  soft  real  one,  ^lamsell  Fos  of  Dessau,  to 
whom  he  continued  constant.  The  (iovi-rnment  of  his  Domin- 
ions he  left  cheerfully  to  his  ^lothcr,  even  when  he  came  of 
age  :  "  I  am  for  learning  War,  as  the  one  right  trade  ;  do  with 
all  things  as  you  i)lease,  Mamma,  —  only  not  with  Mamsell, 
not  with  her  !  "  — 

Reailers  may  figure  this  scene  too,  and  sluidder  over  it. 
Sonu'  rather  handsouu'  male  Cousin  of  Mamsell,  Medical  Grad- 
uate or  whatever  he  was,  had  appeared  in  Dessau  :  —  *'  Seems 
to  admire  Mamsell  ranch  ;  of  course,  in  a  Platonic  way,"  said 
rumor.  —  '*  He  ?  Admire  ?  "  thinks  Leopold ;  —  thinks  a  good 
deal  of  it,  not  in  the  philosophic  mood.  As  he  was  one  day 
l)assing  Fos's,  Mamsell  and  the  ^ledical  Graduate  are  visible, 
standing  together  at  the  window  inside.  Pleasantly  looking 
out  upon  Nature,  —  of  course  quite  casually,  say  some  His- 
tories with  a  sneer.  In  fact,  it  seems  possible  this  ^Medical 
Ciraduate  may  have  been  set  to  act  shoeing-horn  ;  but  he  had 
better  not.  Leopold  storms  into  the  House,  "  Draw,  scanda- 
lous canaille,  and  defend  3'ourself !  "  —  And  in  this,  or  some 
such  way,  a  confident  tradition  says,  he  killed  the  poor  Medi- 
cal Graduate  there  and  then.  One  tries  always  to  hope 
not :  but  Varnhagen  is  positive,  though  the  other  Histories  say 
nothing  of  it.  God  knows.  The  man  was  a  Prince  ;  no  Reichs- 
hofrath,  Spej-er-Wetzlar  Kammer,  or  other  Supreme  Court, 
would  much  trouble  itself,  except  with  formal  shakings  of  the 
wig,  about  such  a  peccadillo.     In  fine,  it  was  better  for  Leo- 


320  HIS    APrKFA'TICKSlIIP.    FIRST    STAGE.     Book  I v, 

pold  to  marry  the  Miss  Fos  ;  which  he  actually  did  (1G9.S,  in 
his  twpnty-sccoud  year),  *' with  the  left-hand,"  —  and  then 
with  the  right  and  Iwith  hands;  having  got  her  jM-oprrly  en- 
nobled btdore  long,  hy  his  splendid  military  services.  She 
made,  a,s  we  have  hinted,  an  excellent  Wife  to  him,  for  the 
hfty  or  sixty  ensuing  years. 

This  is  a  strange  rugged  specimen,  this  inarticulate  Leo- 
pold ;  already  getting  mythic,  as  we  can  j)erceive,  to  the 
])olished  vf)cal  ages  ;  whirh  mix  all  numner  of  fables  with 
tilt'  considerable  history  he  has.  Readers  will  see  him  turn 
u])  again  in  notalde  forms,  A  man  hitherto  unknown  except 
in  Ills  own  country  ;  and  yet  of  very  considt'rablt>  significance 
to  all  European  countries  whatsoever;  the  fruit  of  his  activi- 
ties, without  his  name  attached,  Ijeing  now  manifest  in  all  of 
them.  He  invented  the  iron  ramnul ;  he  inventt'd  the  etiual 
step ;  in  fact,  he  is  the  inventor  of  modern  military  tactics. 
Even  so,  if  we  knew  it :  the  Soldiery  of  every  civilized  country 
still  ri'ceives  from  this  man,  on  parade-fields  and  batth*-litdds, 
its  word  of  conunand  ;  out  of  his  rough  head  proceeded  the 
essential  of  all  that  the  innumerable  Drill-sergeants,  in  various 
languages,  daily  rej^eat  and  enforce.  Siu-h  a  man  is  worth 
some  transient  glance  from  his  feUow-creatures,  —  especially 
with  a  little  Fritz  trotting  at  his  foot,  and  drawing  inferences 
from  him. 

Dessau,  we  should  have  said  for  the  English  reader's  l)€hoof, 
was  and  still  is  a  little  indt»pendent  Principality  ;  al)o\it  the  size 
of  Huntingdonshire,  but  with  woods  instead  of  bogs;  —  reve- 
nue of  it,  at  this  day,  is  £G(),(KM\  was  perhaps  not  20,  or  even 
10,000  in  Leopold's  first  time.  It  lies  some  fourscore  miles 
southwest  of  Berlin,  attainable  by  post-horses  in  a  day.  Leo- 
pold, as  his  Father  had  done,  stood  by  Prussia  as  if  wholly 
native  to  it.  Leopold's  Mother  was  Sister  of  that  fine  Louisa, 
the  Great  Elector's  first  Wife ;  his  Sister  is  wedded  to  the 
JNEargraf  of  Schwedt,  Friedrich  Wilhelm's  half-uncle.  Lying 
in  such  neighborhood,  and  being  in  such  affinity  to  the  Prus- 
sian House,  the  Dessauers  may  be  said  to  have,  in  late  times, 
their  headquarters  at  Berlin.  Leopold  and  Leopold's  sons, 
as  his  father  before  him  had  done,  without  neglecting  thei* 


CHAP.ir.  THE   GERMAN   ELEMENT.  321 

I7i;i-i7-ia. 

Dessau  and  Principality,  liold  by  the  Prussian  Army  as  their 
main  employment.  Not  neglecting  Dessau  either ;  but  going 
thither  in  winter,  or  on  call  otherwise ;  Leopold  least  of  all 
neglecting  it,  who  neglects  nothing  that  can  be  useful  to  him. 

He  is  General  Field-Marshal  of  the  Prussian  Armies,  the 
foremost  man  in  war-matters  with  this  new  King ;  and  well 
worthy  to  be  so.  He  is  inventing,  or  brooding  in  the  way 
to  invent,  a  variety  of  things,  —  "iron  ramrods,''  for  one  ;  a 
very  great  improvement  on  the  fragile  ineffective  wooden 
in>j»lement,  say  all  the  Books,  but  give  no  date  to  it;  that 
is  the  tirst  thing  ;  and  there  will  be  others,  likewise  undated, 
but  posterior,  requiring  mention  by  and  by.  Inventing  many 
things; — anil  always  well  j)raetising  what  is  already  in- 
vented, and  known  for  certain.  In  a  woril,  he  is  drilling 
to  perfection,  with  assiduous  rigor,  the  Prussian  Infantry 
to  bo  the  wonder  of  the  world.  He  has  ft)ught  with  them, 
too,  in  a  conclusive  manner;  and  i.s  at  all  times  ready  for 
lighting. 

He  w;us  in  ^^alplaquet  with  them,  if  only  as  volunteer 
on  that  occasion.  Ho  commanded  them  in  Blenheim  itself; 
stood,  in  the  right  or  Eugene  wing  of  that  famed  Battle  of 
Blenheim,  fiercely  at  bay,  when  the  Austrian  Cavalry  had 
all  tied  ;  —  fiercely  volleying,  charging,  dexterously  wheeling 
and  manoeuvTing;  sticking  to  his  ground  with  a  mastiff-like 
tenacity, — till  ^larlborough,  and  victory  from  the  left,  re- 
lieved him  and  others.  He  was  at  the  Bridge  of  Cassano; 
where  Eugene  and  Vendorae  came  to  hand-grips ;  —  where 
Mirabeau's  Grandfather,  Col-d\4r(/ent,  got  his  six-and-thirty 
wounds,  and  was  "  killed "  as  he  used  to  term  it.*  "  The 
hottest  fire  I  ever  saw,"  said  Eugene,  who  had  not  seen  Mal- 
plaquet  at  that  time.  "While  CoUl'Argent  sank  collapsed 
ui)on  the  Bridge,  and  the  horse  charged  over  him,  and  again 
charged,  and  beat  and  were  beaten  three  several  times, — 
Anhalt-Dessau,  impatient  of  such  fiddling  hither  and  thither, 
swashed  into  the  stream  itself  with  his  Prussian  Foot: 
swashed  through  it,  waist-deep  or  breast-deep  ;  and  might  have 
settled  the  matter,  had  not  his  cartridges  got  wetted.  Old 
^  Carlyle's  Miscellanirs,  v.  §  ]\Iirabeau. 

VOL.  V.  21 


322  HIS    AI'PRENTICESIIII',   FIRST   STAGE.    B'X'k  IV. 

17ia-172.J. 

King  Friedrioh  rebuked  liim  ani^'iily  for  liis  impetuosity  in 
this  matter,  and  tlie  sad  loss  of  men. 

Then  again  he  was  at  the  Storming  of  tlie  Lines  of  Turin, 
—  Eugene's  feat  of  1700,  and  a  most  volcanic  business  ; —  was 
the  Jjrst  man  that  got  over  the  entrenchment  there.  Foremost 
man  ;  face  all  black  with  the  smoke  of  gunpowder,  only  chan- 
nelled here  and  there  with  rivulets  of  sweat;  —  not  a  lovely 
phenomenon  to  the  French  in  the  interior  !  Who  still  fought 
like  madmen,  l)ut  were  at  length  driven  into  heaps,  and  obliged 
to  run.  A  while  Ix^fore  they  ran,  Anhalt-Dessau,  noticing 
some  Captain  posted  with  his  company  in  a  likely  situation, 
stept  a.side  to  him  for  a  monu-nt,  and  asked,  "  Am  1  wounded, 
think  you?  —  No?  Then  have  you  anything  to  drink?' 
and  deliberately  "drank  a  glass  of  aqua-vita*,*'  the  judicious 
Captain  currying  a  pocket-pistol  of  that  sort,  in  ease  of  acci- 
dent; and  likewise  "eat,  with  great  appetite,  a  bit  of  brea<l 
from  one  of  the  soldiers'  haversacks ;  saying.  He  believed 
the  heat  of  the  job  was  done,  and  that  there  was  no  fear 
now  I  "  '  — 

A  man  tiiat  has  Im'cu  in  many  wars  ;  in  whose  rough  head 
are  schemes  hatching.  Any  religion  he  has  is  of  I'rotestant 
nature  ;  but  he  has  not  much,  —  on  the  doctrinal  side,  very 
little.  Luther's  Hymn,  Elnc  feste  Burg  ist  unser  Gntt,  he  calls 
'*  Ciod  Almighty's  grenadier-march."  On  joining  battle,  he 
audibly  utters,  with  bared  head,  some  growl  of  rugged  prayer, 
far  from  orthodox  at  times,  but  much  in  earnest :  that  lifting 
of  his  hat  for  prayer,  is  his  last  signal  on  such  occasions.  He 
is  very  cunning  as  required,  withal ;  not  disdaining  the  ser- 
pentine method  when  no  other  will  do.  With  Friedrich  Wil- 
hcdm,  who  is  his  second-cousin  piother's  grand-nephew,  if  the 
reader  can  count  that),  he  is  from  of  old  on  the  l)est  footing, 
and  contrives  to  be  his  Mentor  in  many  things  besides  War. 
Till  his  quarrel  with  Grumkow,  of  which  we  shall  hear,  he 
took  the  lead  in  political  advising,  too;  and^had  schemes, 
or  was  thought  to  have,  of  which  Queen  Sophie  was  in  much 
terror. 

1  Dea  tceltberumhten  Leopoldi,  ^.  (Anonymous,  by  RanSt,  cited  above),  pp. 
42-43,  52,  65. 


Chap.  II.      *  THE  GERMAN   ELEMENT.  323 

1713-1723. 

A  tall,  strong-boned,  liairy  man  ;  with  cloudy  brows,  vigilant 
swift  eyes  ;  has  '-a  bluish  tint  of  skin,"  says  Wilhelinina,  '•  as 
if  the  gunpowder  still  stuck  to  him."  He  wears  long  mus- 
taches; triangular  hat,  plume  and  other  equipments,  are  of 
tlirifty  practical  size.  Can  be  polite  enough  in  speech ;  but 
hides  much  of  his  meaning,  which  indeed  is  mostly  inarticu- 
late, and  not  always  joyful  to  the  by-stander.  He  plays  rougli 
pranks,  too,  on  occasion;  and  has  a  big  horse-laugh  in  him, 
where  there  is  a  fop  to  be  roasted,  or  tlie  like.  We  will  leave 
hiki  lor  the  present,  in  hope  of  other  meetings. 

liemarkablc  men,  many  of  those  old  Prussian  soldiers:  of 
whom  one  wishes,  to  no  jmrpose,  that  there  had  more  knowl- 
edge been  attainable.  15ut  the  Books  are  silent ;  no  painter, 
no  genial  seeiug-mau  to  paint  with  his  pen,  was  there.  Grim 
hirsute  Hyperlxireau  iigurcs,  they  pass  mostly  mute  before 
us :  burly,  surly ;  in  mustaches,  in  dim  uncertain  garniture, 
of  which  the  buff-belts  and  the  steel  are  alone  conspicuous. 
CJrowling  in  guttural  Teutsch  what  little  articulate  meaning 
they  had  :  spending,  of  the  inarticulate,  a  proportion  in  games 
of  chance,  probably  too  in  drinking  beer ;  yet  having  an  im- 
mense overplus  which  they  do  not  so  spend,  but  endeavor  to 
utter  in  such  working  as  there  may  be.  So  have  the  Hyper- 
boreans lived  from  of  old.  From  the  times  of  Tacitus  and 
I'ytheas,  not  to  speak  of  Odin  and  Japhet,  what  hosts  of  them 
have  marched  across  Existence,  in  that  manner ;  —  and  where 
is  the  memory  that  would,  even  if  it  could,  speak  of  them 
all:  — 

AVe  Avill  hope  the  mind  of  our  little  Fritz  has  powers  of 
assimilation.  Bayle-Calviu  logics,  and  shadows  of  Versailles, 
on  this  hand,  and  gunpowder  Leopolds  and  inarticulate  Hyper- 
boreans on  that :  here  is  a  wide  diversity  of  nutriment,  all 
rather  tough  in  quality,  provided  for  the  young  soul.  Innumer- 
able unconscious  inferences  he  must  have  drawn  in  his  little 
head  1  Prince  Leopold's  face,  with  the  whiskers  and  blue  skin, 
I  find  he  was  wont,  at  after  periods,  to  do  in  caricature,  under 
the  figure  of  a  Cat's ;  —  horror  and  admiration  not  the  sole 


'i-2i  JUS  ArruKN'ruKsiiir,  nusr  siage.  u-^'k  iv. 

171.J-1T23. 

luelings  raised  in  him  by  the  Field-Marshal.  —  For  bodily 
nourislniu'iit  ln'  had  "  iM-er-soup  5  "a  dt'cidcd  SjiarUin  tone  jire- 
vailing,  w  lit-n-vrr  ifo.^silili-.  in  thi*  brfi-tliiii,'  and  trc;iliuriit  of 
him. 

And  we  need  not  doubl,  by  iar  the  most  importiint  element 
ot  his  eilueatioii  \v;uj  the  uneunseious  Appreutieisidp  he  con- 
tinually served  to  such  a  S{>artan  as  King  Friedrieh  Wilhelm. 
Oi  whose  works  and  ways  he  couhl  not  htdp  tiiking  noti*,  angry 
or  other,  every  day  and  hour ;  n(»r  in  the  end,  if  lu*  wtre  intel- 
ligent, help  understanding  them,  aud  leuruiug  from  them.  A 
harsh  Miistrr  an*l  almost  half-mad,  as  it  many  times  seemed 
to  the  jMJor  Apprentite;  y«'t  a  true  aud  solid  one,  whose  real 
wisdom  was  worth  that  of  all  the  others,  as  he  came  at  length 
to  recogiiize. 


CHArTKi:    111. 

FKIKDUK'M    WILIIKLM    IS    KIXO. 

With  the  death  of  old  King  Friedrieh,  there  occurred  at 
once  vast  changes  in  the  Court  of  Berlin ;  a  total  and  universal 
chant;"'  iu  the  mo<le  of  livinr»  and  doing  business  there.  Fri»*d- 
rich  Wilhelm,  out  of  filial  ])icty,  wore  at  his  father's  funt'ral 
the  grand  French  |>emke  an<l  other  sublimities  of  French  cos- 
tume; but  it  was  for  th"  last  titno:  that  s.ad  duty  once  done, 
he  flung  the  whole  aside,  not  without  imj»atience,  and  on  no 
occasion  wore  such  costume  again.  He  was  not  a  friend  to 
French  fashions,  nor  had  ever  U'cn  ;  far  the  contrary.  Tn  his 
boyhood,  say  the  Biographers,  there  was  once  a  grand  em- 
broidered cloth-of-gold,  or  otherwise  supremely  magnificent, 
little  Dn'ssing-gown  giv,">n  him ;  but  he  would  at  no  rate  put 
it  on.  or  Ix*  concerned  with  it ;  on  the  contrar}',  stuflFfd  it  indig- 
nantly *•  into  the  fire ;  "  and  demanded  wholesome  useful  duffel 
instead. 

H-'  began  his  reform  literally  at  the  earliest  moment.  Be- 
ing summoned  into  the  apartment  where  his  poor  Father  was 


(11 M-   111.      '    FUIEDUICII   WILIIELM    IS    KINCJ.  325 

171V17-2.1. 

ill  tlie  lust  struggle,  he  could  scarcely  get  across  lur  Kiunmrr- 
J tinker,  Kamtner/terrn,  Goldsticks,  Silversticks,  and  the  other 
soh'iuu  histrionic  t'unctiouaries,  all  crowding  there  to  do  their 
sad  niiuiicry  on  the  occasion  :  not  a  lovely  acconii>aninient  in 
Friedrich  Wilhcliu's  eyes.  His  poor  Father's  death-struggle 
once  done,  and  all  reduced  to  everhisting  rest  there,  Friedrich 
Wilhclni  looked  in  silence  over  the  Unutterable,  for  a  short 
space,  disregardiul  of  the  Gohlsticks  and  their  eager  new 
houiaging;  walked  swiftly  away  from  it  to  his  own  room,  sliut 
thi;  door  with  a  slam  ;  and  there,  shaking  the  tears  from  his 
eyes,  commenceil  by  a  notable  duty, — the  duty  neiirest  hand, 
and  therefore  tirst  to  be  done,  as  it  seemed  to  him.  It  was 
about  one  in  the  afternoon,  25th  February,  171."5;  his  Father 
dead  half  an  hour  before  :  "  Tears  at  a  Father's  death-bed,  must 
they  be  dasheil  with  rage  by  such  a  set  of  greedy  llistrios?  " 
thttught  Friedrich  Wilhelm.  He  summoned  these  his  Court- 
people,  that  is  to  say,  summoned  their  Ohcr-ll'ifmnrsrhuU  and 
representative  ;  and  through  him  signified  to  them.  That,  till 
tlie  Funeral  was  over,  their  service  would  continue  ;  and  that 
on  the  morrow  after  the  Funeral,  they  were,  every  soul  of 
them,  discharged ;  and  from  the  highest  Goldstick  down  to 
the  lowest  Tage-in-waiting,  the  King's  House  should  be  swept 
entirely  clean  of  them  ;  —  said  House  intending  to  start  afresh 
upon  a  quite  new  footing.*  Which  spread  such  a  consterna- 
tion among  the  courtier  people,  say  the  Histories,  as  was  never 
seen  before. 

The  tiling  was  done,  however ;  and  nobody  durst  whisper 
discontent  with  it ;  this  rugged  young  King,  with  his  plangent 
metallic  voice,  with  his  steady-beaming  eyes,  seeming  dread- 
fully in  earnest  al)Out  it,  and  a  person  that  might  prove  danger- 
ous if  you  crossed  him.  He  reduced  his  Household  accord- 
ingly, at  once,  to  the  lowest  footing  of  the  indispensable  ;  and 
discharged  a  whole  regiment  of  superfluous  official  persons, 
court-flunkies,  inferior,  superior  and  supreme,  in  the  most 
ruthless  manner.  He  does  not  intend  keeping  any  Oher-Hof- 
marschaU,  or  the  like  idle  person,  henceforth ;  thinks  a  mini 
mum  of  the  Goldsticks  ought  to  suffice  every  man. 

1  Forstcr,  i.  174  ;  PiJllnitz,  yfemoiren,  u.  4. 


326  HIS  Arrr.ENTiCEsiiir.  nusr  stack.  »«»ok  iv. 

I7i.i-I7:i;». 

Eight  Lackeys,  in  the  ante-cliambers  and  elsewhere,  these, 
with  eucli  a  Jiiijirhnrsrli  (wliut  we  shouKl  call  an  f'/K/er-kerjur) 
to  assist  when  not  liunting,  will  sutKce :  Liu'keys  at  "eight 
thalers  monthly,"  which  is  six  shillings  a  week.  Three  active 
I'ages,  sonietinies  two,  inste:nl  of  iMThajts  three  dozen  idle 
that  there  used  to  l>e.  In  King  Friedrieh's  time,  there  were 
wont  to  be  a  thousand  satldle-horses  at  corn  and  hay  :  hut 
how  many  of  them  were  in  aetual  use?  Very  many  of  tlnMu 
were  mere  imaginary  cjuadrupeds ;  their  j)ri«'e  and  keep 
lK)eketed  by  some  knavish  Stall ineister,  Equerry  or  Head- 
groom.  Friedrieh  Wilhelm  keejjs  only  thirty  Horses;  but 
these  are  very  aetu:d,  not  imaginary  at  all;  their  corn  not 
running  into  any  knave's  jK)cket ;  but  lying  actually  in  the 
mangers  here  ;  getting  ground  for  you  int<i  aetual  four-fo<»ted 
speed,  when,  on  turf  or  highway,  you  require'such  a  thing. 
Alxmt  thirty  for  the  saddle,  with  a  few  carriage-teams,  are 
what  Friedrieh  Wilhelm  can  employ  in  any  reasonable  mea- 
sure :  and  more  he  will  not  have  alxtut  hint. 

In  the  like  ruthless  humor  he  goe.s  over  his  Pension-list; 
strikes  three  fourths  of  that  away,  reduces  the  remaining 
fourth  to  the  very  bone.  In  like  humor,  he  goes  over  every 
department  of  his  Administrative,  Household  ami  other 
Exi)enses :  shears  everything  down,  here  by  the  hundred 
thalers.  there  by  the  ten,  willing  even  to  save  half  a  thnlfr. 
He  goes  over  all  this  three  several  times;  —  his  Papers,  the 
three  successive  Lists  he  used  on  that  occasion,  have  l)e«>n 
printed.*  He  has  s-atisfied  himself,  in  about  two  months, 
what  the  effective  minimum  is ;  and  leaves  it  so.  Reduced 
to   below  the  fifth  of  what  it  was ;  5o,000  thalers,  instead  of 

By  degrees  he  went  over,  went  into  and  through,  every 
department  of  Prussian  Business,  in  that  fashion  ;  .steatlily, 
warily,  irresistibly  compelling  every  item  of  it,  large  and 
little,  to  take  that  same  character  of  perfect  economy  and 
solidity,  of  utility  pure  and  simple.     Needful  work  is  to  be 

*  Rotlenl>Ock,    Beitraqf  zur  Bereichening  Her  f^heivtheschrfihunffen   Friedrick 
n'tlhflms  I.  und  Fn'edrichs  des  Grossen  (Berlin,  1836),  pp.  99-127. 
2  Stenzel,  iii.  237. 


(MA.-.  III.  KRIEUKICll    WILllKLM    IS   KING.  327 

nv.i-ii.i^. 

rigorously  well  done ;  needless  work,  ;ind  iuelleetiuil  or  iuuigi- 
nary  workers,  to  be  rigorously  pitehed  out  ot  doors.  What  a 
blessing  on  this  Eurth ;  worth  purchasing  almost  at  any  priee  ! 
The  money  saved  is  something,  nothing  ii  you  will;  but  the 
amount  oi'  mendacity  expunged,  has  any  one  computed  that  ? 
Mendaeity  not  of  tongue;  but  the  liir  feller  sort,  of  hand, 
and  of  heart,  and  of  head ;  short  sumnuiry  of  all  Devil's- 
•worshi])  whatsoever.  W  hieh  spreads  silently  along,  ouce  you 
h't  it  in,  with  full  purse  or  with  empty  ;  some  fools  even 
pry,ising  it:  the  (piiet  ii/'t/-/'ut  oi  Sutioiisl  To  expunge  such 
is  greatly  the  duty  of  every  man,  esi>ecially  of  every  King. 
Unconsciously,  not  thinking  of  Devil's-worship,  or  spiritual 
dry-rot,  but  of  money  chieliy,  and  led  by  Nature  imd  the  ways 
she  has  with  us,  it  was  the  task  of  Friedrich  Willielm's  life  to 
bring  about  this  benelicent  result  in  all  ilepartments  of  Prus- 
sian liusiness,  great  and  little,  public  and  even  private.  Year 
after  year,  he  brings  it  to  i>erfection  ;  pushes  it  unweariedly 
forward  every  day  and  hour.  So  that  he  has  Prussia,  at  last, 
all  a  I'russia  made  after  his  own  image ;  the  most  thrifty, 
hanly,  rigorous  and  S])artan  country  any  modern  King  ever 
ruled  over;  and  liimsolf  (if  he  thought  of  that)  a  King  indeed. 
He  that  models  Nations  according  to  his  own  image,  he  is  a 
King,  though  his  sceptre  were  a  walking-stick  ;  and,  properly 
no  other  is. 

Friedrich  Wilhelm  was  wondered  at,  and  laughed  at,  bv 
innumerable  mortals  for  his  ways  of  doing ;  which  indeed 
were  very  strange.  Not  that  he  figured  much  in  what  is 
called  Public  History,  or  desired  to  do  so ;  for,  though  a 
vigilant  ruler,  he  did  not  deal  in  protocolling  and  campaign- 
ing, —  he  let  a  minimum  of  that  suffice  him.  But  in  court 
soirees,  where  elegant  emptv  talk  goes  on,  and  of  all  materials 
for  it  scandal  is  found  incomparably  the  most  interesting,  I 
suppose  there  turned  up  no  name  oftener  than  that  of  his 
Prussian  Majesty;  and  duinig  these  twenty -seven  years  of 
his  Peign.  his  wild  pranks  and  explosions  gave  food  for 
continual  talk  in  such  quarter. 

For  he  was  like  no  other  King  that  then  existed,  or  hnd 
ever  been  discovered.     "Wilder  Son  of   Nature   seldom   came 


o28  HIS   Ari'KENTICESIIIP,   FIRST   STAGE.    B«x'k  IV, 

17ia-1723. 

into  the  artificial  world ;  into  a  royal  throne  there,  jirobably 
never.  A  wild  man,  wholly  in  eai'nest,  veritable  as  the  old 
rocks,  —  and  with  a  t^'rrible  volcanic  fire  in  him  too.  He 
would  have  been  strange  anywhere  ;  but  among  the  dapper 
lioyal  gi-ntlemen  of  the  Eigliteenth  Century,  what  was  to  l)0 
done  witli  such  ;ui  Orson  of  a  King?  —  Clap  him  in  lUdlam, 
and  bring  out  the  ballot-lx)xes  instead  ?  The  motlern  gmi-ra- 
tion,  too,  still  Uikes  its  impn-ssion  of  him  from  these  rumors, 
—  still  more  now  from  Wilhelmina's  Book;  which  i>aints  the 
outside  savagery  of  the  royal  man,  in  a  most  striking  manner; 
and  leaves  the  inside  vacant,  undiscovered  by  Wilhehnina  or 
the  rumors. 

Nevertheless  it  ai>poars  there  were  a  few  observant  eyes 
even  of  contt-mporaries,  who  discerned  in  him  a  surprising 
tiilent  for  "National  P>conomics  "  at  least.  One  Leipzig  I'ro- 
fessor,  Saxon,  not  Prussian  by  nation  or  interest,  recognizes 
in  Fricdrich  Wilhelm  ^' dm  gntssen  ll'irth  (the  great  Manager, 
JIusliandry-m;ui,  or  Landlord)  of  theej>och;"  and  lectures 
on  his  admirable  "works,  arrangements  and  institutions"  in 
that  kind.'  Nay  the  dapper  Koyal  gentlemen  saw,  with  envy, 
the  indubitable  growth  of  this  mad  savage  Brother ;  an<l 
ascril)ed  it  to  **  his  avarice,"  to  his  mean  ways,  which  were 
in  such  contrast  to  their  sublime  ones.  That  he  understood 
National  Economics  has  now  become  very  certain.  His  grim 
semi-articulate  Pajiers  and  Rescripts,  on  these  subjects,  are 
still  almost  worth  reading,  by  a  lover  of  genuine  human  talent 
in  the  dumb  form.  For  spelling,  grammar,  penmanship  and 
composition,  they  resemble  nothing  else  extant;  are  as  if 
done  by  the  paw  of  a  bear:  indeed  the  utterance  generally 
sounds  more  like  the  growling  of  a  bear  than  anything  that 
could  be  handily  spelt  or  parsed.  But  there  is  a  decisive 
human  sense  in  the  heart  of  it;  and  there  is  such  a  dire 
hatred  of  empty  bladders,  unrealities  and  hypocritical  forms 
and  pretences,  what  he  calls  "wind  and  humbug  {Wind  uiul 
hiatier  Ihmsf).^''  as  is  very  strange  indeed.  Strange  among  all 
mankind ;  doubly  and  trebly  strange  among  the  unfortunate 

1  T?oilonl)crk*«  n*itrrtr)t  (p.  14),  — Year,  or  Name  of  Lecturer,  not  men- 


Ci.Ai'.  III.  riilEDUlCH   WILHELM    IS   KING.  329 

17l;i-17-23. 

spt'cii's  called  Kings  in  our  time.  To  whom,  —  for  sad  reasons 
that  could  be  given,  —  "  wind  and  blue  vapor  {blaiier  Dunst),^ 
artistically  managed  by  the  rules  of  Acoustics  and  Optics, 
seem  to  \m  all  we  have  left  us  I  — 

It  must  be  owned  that  this  man  is  inflexibly,  and  with  a 
tierce  slow  inexorable  determination,  set  u^ion  having  realities 
round  him.  There  is  a  divine  idea  of  fact  put  into  him  ;  the 
genus  shnm  was  never  hatefoler  to  any  man.  Let  it  keep  out 
of  his  way,  well  beyond  the  swing  of  that  rattan  of  his,  or  it 
may  get  something  to  remember  I  A  just  man,  too  ;  would  not 
wrong  any  man,  nor  play  false  in  word  or  deed  to  any  man. 
^Vhat  is  Justice  but  another  form  of  the  rtality  we  love  ;  a 
trutli  acted  out?  Of  all  the  humbugs  or  "painted  vapors" 
known,  Injustice  is  the  leji^t  capable  of  protiting  men  or 
kings!  A  just  man,  I  say;  and  a  valiant  and  veracious :  but 
rugged  as  a  wild  bear ;  entirely  inarticulate,  as  if  dumb.  No 
bursts  of  parliamentary  eloquence  in  him,  nor  the  least  ten- 
dency that  way.  His  tident  for  Stump-Oratory  may  be  reck- 
oned the  minimum  conceivable,  or  practicidly  noted  a  zero. 
A  man  who  would  not  have  risen  in  modern  Political  Cir- 
cles ;  man  unchoosable  at  hustings  or  in  caucus  ;  man  forever 
invisible,  and  very  unadmirable  if  seen,  to  the  Able  Edi- 
tor and  those  that  hang  by  him.  In  fact,  a  kind  of  savage 
man,  as  we  say  ;  but  highly  interesting,  if  you  can  read  dundj 
luiman  worth ;  and  of  inexpressible  profit  to  the  Prussian 
Nation. 

For  the  first  ten  years  of  his  reign,  he  had  a  heavy,  contin- 
ual struggle,  getting  his  finance  and  other  branches  of  admin- 
istration extricated  from  their  strangling  imbroglios  of  coiled 
nonsense,  and  put  upon  a  rational  footing.  His  labor  in  these 
years,  the  first  of  little  Fritz's  life,  must  have  been  great ;  the 
pushing  and  pulling  strong  and  continual.  The  good  plan 
itself,  this  comes  not  of  its  own  accord;  it  is  the  fruit  of 
"genius  "  (which  means  transcendent  capacity  of  taking  trouble, 
first  of  all) :  given  a  huge  stack  of  tumbled  thrums,  it  is  not 
in  your  sleep  that  you  will  find  the  vital  centre  of  it,  or  get 
the    first  thrum  by  the  end  !     And  then  the  execution,  the 


830  HIS   APPKENTICESHIP,    FIRST  STAGE.    li<>«'K  IV. 

17ia-17i3. 

realizing,  amid  the  t-ontnulii-tion,  silent  or  expressed,  of  men 
and  things  ?  Exi»losive  violence  was  by  no  means  Frieilrieh 
Wilhelm's  metliod ;  the  amount  of  slow  stubborn  broad-shoul- 
dered strength,  in  all  kinds,  expended  by  the  man,  strikes  us 
as  very  great.  The  amount  of  patience  even,  though  patience 
is  not  reckoned  his  forte. 

That  of  the  Jiltter-l>ienst  (Knights'-Service),  for  example, 
which  is  but  one  small  item  of  his  business,  the  comnniting  of 
the  old  feudal  duty  of  his  Landholilers  to  do  Service  in  War- 
time, into  a  fixed  money  jjayment :  nothing  could  be  fairer, 
more  clearly  advantageous  to  both  parties  ;  and  most  of  his 
"Knights"  gladly  accepted  the  proposal:  yet  a  certain  fac- 
tious set  of  them,  the  Magileburg  set,  stirred  up  by  souie  seven 
or  eight  of  their  numlxT,  "  hardly  above  seven  or  eight  really 
agtvinst  me,"  saw  good  to  stand  out ;  remonstrated,  recalci- 
trated ;  complained  in  the  Diet  (Kaiser  too  happy  to  hear  of 
it,  that  he  might  have  a  hook  on  Friedrioh  Wilhelm) ;  and  for 
long  years  that  i^iltry  matter  was  a  provocation  to  him.*  But 
if  your  ])lan  is  just,  and  a  bit  of  Nature's  plan,  |H^rsist  in  it 
like  a  law  of  Nature.  This  secret  too  was  known  to  Friedrieh 
AVilhelm.  In  the  space  often  years,  by  actual  hunum  strength 
loyally  spent,  he  had  managed  many  things  ;  saw  all  things  in 
a  course  towards  management.  All  things,  as  it  were,  fairly 
on  the  road ;  the  multiplex  team  jniUing  one  way,  in  rational 
human  harness,  not  in  imbroglios  of  coiled  thrums  made  by 
the  Nightmares. 

How  he  introduced  a  new  mode  of  farming  his  Domain 
Lands,  which  are  a  main  branch  of  his  revenue,  and  shall  l)e 
farmed  on  regular  lease  henceforth,  and  not  wasted  in  i»ecula- 
tion  and  indolent  mismanagement  as  heretofore ;  ^  new  modes 
of  levying  his  taxes  and  revenues  of  every  kind : '  How  he  at 
last  concentrated,  and  harmonized  into  one  easy-going  effective 
General  Dirertonj.*  the  multifarious  conflicting  Boards,  that 
were  jolting  and  jangling  in  a  dark  use-and-wont  manner,  and 

1   1717-1725.    Forster.  ii.  162-10.5.  iv  .T1-.34  :  Stenzel,  iii.  .316-319;   Samiifl 
Buchholz,  A'ifiies^e  Preussisch-Braudenbitrgische  Gf-schichte  (Berlin,  1775),  i.  197 
a  Forster,  ii.  206,  216.  »  lb.  ii.  190,  195. 

*  Completed  19th  Jmmary,  172.3  (lb.  ii.  172). 


Chap.  III.  FKIEDKICIl   WILIIELM    IS   KING.  331 

17l;i-1723. 

leaving  their  work  half  done,  when  he  first  came  into  power :  ^ 
How  lie  in.sisted  ou  having  daylight  iutrodueed  to  the  very 
bottom  of  every  business,  fair-aud-square  observed  as  the  rule 
of  it,  and  the  shortest  road  adopted  for  doing  it :  How  he 
drained  bogs,  planted  colonies,  established  manufactures,  made 
his  own  uniforms  of  I'russiau  wool,  in  a  Lagerhuus  of  his  own  : 
How  he  dealt  with  the  Jew  Gompert  about  farming  his  To- 
bacco ;  —  how,  from  many  a  crooked  case  and  character  hCj  by 
slow  or  short  methods,  brought  out  something  straight;  would 
take  no  denial  of  what  was  his,  nor  make  any  demand  of  what 
was  nt)t ;  and  did  prove  really  a  terror  to  evil-<loers  of  various 
kinds,  especially  to  prevaricators,  defalcators,  imaginary  work- 
ers, and  slii)i)ery  unjust  persons:  How  he  urged  diligence  on 
all  mortals,  would  not  have  the  very  Api)le-wonjen  sit  ''with- 
out knitting "  at  their  stalls ;  and  brandished  his  stick,  or 
struck  it  fiercely  down,  over  the  incorrigibly  idle: — All  this, 
as  well  a.s  his  ludicrous  explosions  and  unreasonable  violences, 
is  on  record  concerning  Friedrich  Wilhclm,  though  it  is  to  the 
latttT  chiefly  that  the  world  has  directed  its  unwise  attention, 
in  judging  of  him.  He  was  a  very  arbitrary  King.  Yes,  but 
then  a  good  deal  of  his  arbltr'uim,  or  sovereign  will,  was  that 
of  the  Eternal  Heavens  as  well ;  and  did  exceedingly  behoove 
to  he  done,  if  the  Earth  would  prosper.  "Which  is  an  immense 
consideration  in  regard  to  his  sovereign  will  and  him  !  He 
was  prompt  with  his  rattan,  in  urgent  cases ;  had  his  gallows 
also,  prompt  enough,  where  needful.  Let  him  see  that  no 
mistakes  happen,  as  certainly  he  means  that  none  shall  ! 

Yearly  he  made  his  country  richer ;  and  this  not  in  money 
alone  (which  is  of  very  uncertain  value,  and  sometimes  has  no 
value  at  all,  and  even  less),  but  in  frugality,  diligence,  punctu- 
ality, veracity,  —  the  grand  fountains  from  which  money,  and 
all  real  values  and  valors  spring  for  men.  To  Friedrich  Wil- 
helm.  in  his  rustic  simplicity,  monej'  had  no  lack  of  value  ; 
rather  the  reverse.  To  the  homespun  man  it  was  a  success  of 
most  excellent  quality,  and  the  chief  symbol  of  success  in  all 
kinds.     Yearly  he  made  his  own  revenues,  and  his  people's 

1  Dohm,  Denktnirdi'jkeiten  meiner  Zeit  (Lemgo  und  Hanover,  1814-1819), 
iv.  88. 


832  HIS  APPRENTICESHIP,    FIRST   STAGE.    n.M,K  IV. 

171^-17:23. 

along  with  them  and  as  the  source  of  them,  larger  :  and  in  all 
states  of  his  ivvt'nue,  he  had  contrived  to  make  his  expendi- 
ture loss  tiuin  it ;  and  yearly  saved  masses  of  coin,  and  ''  re- 
posited  thiMu  in  barrels  in  the  cellars  of  his  Sc-hloss,"  —  wliere 
they  proved  very  useful,  one  day.  Much  in  Friedrich  Wilhelm 
I)r()ve(l  useful,  heyond  even  his  expectations.  As  a  Nation's 
Jluafnntil  he  seeks  his  fellow  among  Kings,  ancient  and  nuul- 
erii.  Happy  the  Nation  which  gets  such  a  Husband,  once  in 
the  half-thousand  years.  The  Nation,  as  foolish  wives  and 
Nations  do,  repines  and  grudges  a  gootl  deal,  its  weak  whims 
and  will  l)eing  thwarted  very  often;  but  it  atlvances  steadily, 
with  consciousness  or  not,  in  the  way  of  wclUloing ;  and  after 
long  times  the  harvest  of  this  diligent  sowing  becomes  manifest 
to  the  Nation  and  to  all  Nations. 

Strange  as  it  sounds  in  the  Itepublic  of  Letters,  we  are 
tempted  to  call  Friedrich  Wilhehn  a  man  of  genius;  —  genius 
fated  and  promoted  to  work  in  National  Husbandry,  not  in 
writing  Verses  or  three-volume  Novels.  A  silent  genius.  His 
melodious  stanza,  which  he  cannot  Ijear  to  .see  halt  in  any 
syllable,  is  a  rough  fact  reduced  to  order ;  fact  made  to  stiind 
firm  on  its  feet,  with  the  world-rocks  under  it,  and  looking  free 
towards  all  the  winds  and  all  the  stars.  He  goes  al>out  suj)- 
pressing  platitudes,  ripping  off  futilities,  turning  deceptions 
inside  out.  The  realm  of  Disorder,  which  is  Unveracity,  Un- 
reality, what  we  call  Chaos,  has  no  fiercer  enemy.  Honest 
soul,  and  he  seemed  to  himself  such  a  stupid  fellow  often ;  no 
tongue-leaniing  at  all ;  little  capable  to  give  a  reason  for  the 
faith  that  was  in  him.  He  cannot  argue  in  articulate  logic, 
only  in  inarticulate  Ixdlowings,  or  worse.  He  must  do  a  thing, 
leave  it  uudemonstrated ;  once  done,  it  will  itself  tell  what 
kind  of  thing  it  is,  by  and  by.  Men  of  genius  have  a  hard 
time,  I  perceive,  whether  lx)rn  on  the  throne  or  off  it ;  and 
must  exi^ect  contradictions  next  to  unendurable,  —  the  plurality 
of  blocklieads  being  so  extreme  ! 

I  find,  except  Samuel  Johnson,  no  man  of  equal  veracity 
with  Friedrich  Wilhelm  in  that  epoch :  and  Johnson  too, 
with  all  his  tongue-learning,  had  not  logic  enough.  In  fact, 
it  depends  on  how  much  conviction  you  have.     Blessed  be 


C'iiAi-.  111.  FlilEDllICII    WILIIELM    IS   KING.  333 

171o-17;i;i. 

Heaven,  there  is  here  and  there  a  man  born  who  ioves  truth 

as  truth  bhoukl  be  loved,  with  all  his  lu-art  and  all  his  soul; 

and  hates  untruth  with  a  corresjtonding  i)ertVet  hatred.     Such 

men,  in  polite  eireles,  which  understand  that  certainly  truth 

is  better  than  untruth,  but  that  you  must  be  polite  to  both, 

are  liable  to  get  to  the  end  ol'  their  logic.     Even  Johnson  had 

a  bellow  in  him;  though  Johnson  could  at  any  time  withdraw 

into  silence,  his  kingdom  lying  all  under  his  own  hat.     How 

much  more  Friedrich  Wilhelm,   who  had  uo  logic  whatever; 

ujul  whose  kingdom  lay  without  him,  far  and  witle,  a  thing  he 

could  not  withdraw  from.     The  rugged  Orson,  he  needed  to 

be  right.     From  utmost  Menud  down  to  Wesel  again,  ranked 

in  a  straggling  manner  round  the  hali'-circumt'erence  of  Europe, 

all  manner  of  things  and  persons  were  depending  on  him,  and 

on  his  being  right,  not  wrong,  in  his  notion. 

A  num  of  clear  discernment,  very  good  natural  eyesight ; 
and  irrefragably  contideut  in  what  his  eyes  told  him,  in  what 
his  belief  was;  —  j'et  of  huge  simjdicity  withal.  Capable  of 
being  coaxed  about,  and  led  by  the  nose,  to  a  strange  degree, 
if  there  were  au  artist  dexterous  enough,  daring  enough  !  His 
own  natural  judgment  was  g^od,  and,  though  apt  to  be  hasty 
and  headlong,  was  always  likely  to  come  right  in  the  end ;  but 
internally,  we  may  perceive,  his  modesty,  self-distrust,  anxiety 
and  other  unexpected  qualities,  must  have  been  great.  And 
then  his  explosiveness,  impatience,  excitability ;  his  conscious 
dumb  ignorance  of  all  things  beyond  his  own  small  horizon  of 
personal  survey !  An  Orson  capable  enough  of  being  coaxed 
and  tickled,  by  some  first-rate  conjurer  ;  —  first-rate ;  a  second- 
rate  might  have  failed,  and  got  torn  to  pieces  for  his  pains. 
But  Seckendorf  and  Grumkow,  what  a  dance  they  led  him  ou 
some  matters,  —  as  we  shall  see,  and  as  poor  Fritz  and  others 
will  see  ! 

He  was  full  of  sensitiveness,  rough  as  he  was  and  shaggy 
of  skin.  His  wild  imaginations  drove  him  hither  and  thither 
at  a  sad  rate.  He  ought  to  have  the  privileges  of  genius. 
His  tall  Potsdam  Eegiment,  his  mad-looking  passion  for  en- 
listing tall  men ;  this  also  seems  to  me  one  of  the  whims  of 
genius, — an  exaggerated  notion  to  have  his  "stanza"  polished 


30-1  HIS  AI'I'IiENTlCESIlIl',    FIIiST  STAGE.     Bo-'k  IV. 

1713-1723. 

to  tho  last  punctilio  of  perfection ;  and  might  l)e  paralleled  in 
the  liistory  of  Poets.  Stranger  '•  man  of  genius,"  or  in  more 
peculiar  circumstances,  tlie  world  never  saw  ! 

Friedrich  Wilhelm,  in  his  Crown-Prince  days,  and  now  still 
more  when  he  was  hiiusilf  in  thf  sovereign  place,  had  s»'en  all 
along,  with  natural  arithmelit-al  intelliu-t,  That  his  strength  in 
this  world,  aa  at  present  situated,  wouhi  very  much  depend 
upon  the  amount  of  ixjtential-huttle  that  lay  in  him,  — on  the 
quantity  and  cpiality  of  Soldiers  he  could  maintain,  and  have 
ready  for  the  tield  at  any  time.  A  most  indisputable  truth, 
and  a  heartfelt  one  in  the  present  instiince.  To  augnuut  the 
(quantity,  to  improve  the  quality,  in  this  thriee-essrntial  i)ar- 
ticular:  here  lay  the  keystone  and  crowning  summit  of  all 
Frieibich  Wilhelm's  endeavors  ;  to  which  ho  devotod  himself, 
as  only  the  best  Spartiin  could  have  done.  Of'  whicli  there 
will  be  other  opportunities  to  syteak  in  detail.  For  it  was  a 
thing  world-noUible  ;  world-laughable,  as  was  then  thought ; 
the  extremely  .serious  fruit  of  whieli  did  at  length  also  become 
notable  enough. 

In  th«>  Malj)la<pi't  iiiiif,  (nice  «in  some  occasion,  it  is  said, 
two  English  OHieers,  not  well  informed  ujxju  the  matter,  and 
provoking  enough  in  their  contemptuous  ignorance,  were  rea- 
soning with  t)ne  another  in  Friedrich  Wilhelm's  hearing,  xs 
to  the  warlike  ixjwers  of  the  Pru.ssian  Stiite,  and  Whether  the 
King  of  Prussia  could  on  his  own  strength  maintain  a  standing 
army  of  ir),0(X)  ?  Without  subsidies,  do  you  think,  so  many 
as  l.VMM)';'  Friedrich  Wilhelm,  incensed  at  the  thing  and  at 
the  tone,  is  re^wrted  to  have  said  with  heat :  **  Ves,  30,000 !  "  * 
whereat  the  military  men  slightly  wagged  their  heads,  letting 
the  matter  drop  for  the  present.  But  he  makes  it  good  by 
degrees;  twofold  or  threefold;  —  and  will  have  an  army  of 
from  seventy  to  a  hundred  thousand  before  he  dies,''  the  best- 
drilled  of  fighting  men ;  and  what  adtls  much  to  the  wonder, 
a  full  Treasury  withal.  This  is  the  Brandenburg  Spartan 
King;  acquainted  with  National  Economics.     AJone  of  exist- 

-  Fiirstor.  i.  1.18. 

■^  "  72,000  field-troops,  30,000  garrison-troops  "  ( Gestdndniste  eines  (Ester 
reichischen  Viterans,  Brealau,  1788,  i.  64). 


CuAr.  HI.  FRIEDKICII    WILIIELM    IS    KING.  335 

17i;J-1723. 

ing  Kings  he  lays  by  money  annually ;  and  is  laying  by  many 
other  and  far  more  precious  things,  for  Prussia  and  the  little 
I'oy  he  has  here. 

Friedrifh  Wilhelm's  passion  for  drilling,  recruiting  and 
liorfecting  his  army  attracted  much  notice  :  laughing  satirical 
notice,  in  the  hundred  mouths  of  common  rumor,  which  he 
regarded  little ;  and  notice  iraeund  and  minatory,  when  it 
Ifd  him  into  collision  with  the  independent  portions  of  man- 
kind, now  and  then.  This  latter  sort  was  not  pleasant,  and 
sometimes  looked  rather  serious ;  but  this  too  he  contrived 
always  to  digest  in  some  tolerable  manner.  Ho  continued 
drilling  and  recruiting,  —  we  may  say  not  his  Army  only,  but 
his  Nation  in  all  departments  of  it,  —  as  no  man  before  or 
since  ever  did :  increasing,  by  every  devisal)le  method,  the 
amount  of  potential-battle  that  lay  in  him  and  it. 

In  a  military,  and  also  in  a  much  deeper  sense,  he  may 
be  defined  as  the  great  Drill-sergeant  of  the  Prussian  Nation. 
Indeed  this  had  l)een  the  function  of  the  Hohenzollerns  all 
along ;  this  ditHcult,  unpleasant  and  indispensable  one  of 
drilling.  From  the  lirst  appearance  of  Burggraf  Friedrich, 
with  good  words  and  with  Heavy  Peg,  in  the  wreck  of  an- 
archic Brandenburg,  and  downwai'ds  ever  since,  this  has 
steadily  enough  gone  on.  And  not  a  little  good  drilling 
these  populations  have  had,  first  and  last ;  just  orders  given 
them  (wise  and  just,  which  to  a  respectable  degree  were 
Heaven's  orders  as  well) :  and  certainly  Heavy  Peg,  for  in- 
stance, —  Heavy  Peg,  bringing  Quitzow's  strong  House  about 
his  ears,  —  was  a  respectable  drummers  cat  to  enforce  the 
same.  This  has  been  going  on  these  three  hundred  years. 
But  Friedrich  Wilhelm  completes  the  process  ;  finishes  it  off 
to  the  last  pitch  of  perfection.  Friedrich  TVilhelm  carries 
it  through  every  fibre  and  cranny  of  Prussian  Business,  and 
so  far  as  possible,  of  Prussian  Life ;  so  that  Prussia  is  all 
a  drilled  phalanx,  ready  to  the  word  of  command ;  and  what 
we  see  in  the  Army  is  but  the  last  consummate  essence  of 
what  exists  in  the  Nation  everywhere.  That  was  Friedrich 
Wilhelm's  function,  made   ready  for  him,  laid  to  his  hand 


336  HIS  APPRENTICESHIP,  FIRST  STAGE.    B^'k  IV. 

I7ia-i72a. 

by  his  HolienzoUern  foregoers ;  and  indeed  it  proved  a  most 
beneficent  function. 

For  I  have,  remarked  that,  of  all  thinj^s,  a  Nation  needs 
first  to  be  drilled  ;  and  no  Nation  that  has  not  first  been 
governed  by  so-called  "  Tyrants,"  and  held  tight  to  the  curb 
till  it  became  jwrfect  in  its  paces  and  thoroughly  amenable 
to  rule  and  law,  and  heartily  respectful  of  the  .same,  and  to- 
tally abhorrent  of  the  want  of  the  same,  ever  came  to  mueh 
in  thi.s  world.  England  itself,  in  foolish  quarters  of  England, 
still  howls  and  execrates  lament;ibly  over  its  William  Con- 
queror, and  rigorous  line  of  Normans  and  I'lantagenets ;  but 
without  them,  if  you  will  consider  well,  what  had  it  ever 
been?  A  gluttonous  race  of  iliites  and  Angles,  capable  of 
no  grand  combinations ;  luml)ering  al)out  in  pot-lndlied  equa- 
nimity; not  dreaming  of  Iieroic  toil  and  silence  and  endur- 
ance, such  as  leads  to  the  high  places  of  this  Universe,  ami 
the  golden  mountain-tops  where  dwell  the  Spirits  of  the 
Dawn.  Their  very  ballot-boxes  and  suffrages,  what  they  call 
their  *'  Lil)erty,"  if  these  mean  "  Liberty,"  and  are  such  a 
road  to  Heaven,  Anglo-Saxon  high-road  thither,  —  could  never 
have  been  jKissible  for  them  on  such  terms.  How  could  they  ? 
Nothing  but  collision,  intolerable  interpressure  (as  of  men  nut 
perpendicular),  and  consequent  battle  often  suj>ervening,  could 
have  been  apjxunted  those  undrilled  Anglo-Saxons ;  their  pot- 
Ixdlied  C(pianimity  itself  continuing  liable  to  jK^riH'tual  inter- 
ruptions, as  in  the  Hept;irchy  time.  An  enlightened  I'ublic 
does  not  reflect  on  these  things  at  present ;  but  will  again,  by 
and  by.  Looking  with  human  eyes  over  the  England  that 
now  is,  and  over  the  America  and  the  Australia,  from  p<dc  to 
pole  ;  and  then  listening  to  the  Constitutional  litiinies  of  Dry- 
asdust, and  his  lamentations  on  the  old  Norman  and  Plantage- 
net  Kings,  and  his  recognition  of  departed  merit  and  causes  of 
effects,  —  the  mind  of  man  is  struck  dumb  ! 


Chap.  IV.  HIS  MAJESTY'S  WAYS.  337 

I7ia-i72;j. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


HIS    MAJESTY'S    WAYS. 


Friedricii  Wiliielm's  History  is  one  of  Eronnmics  ;  which 
study,  so  soon  as  tht-re  are  Kings  again  in  tliis  world,  will  ho 
precious  to  them.  In  that  happy  state  of  matters,  Friedrich 
Wilhelm's  History  will  well  reward  study;  and  teach  by 
example,  in  a  very  simjde  and  direct  manner.  In  what  is 
called  the  I'olitical,  Diplomatic,  "  Honor-to-be "  department, 
tliere  is  not,  nor  can  ever  be,  mucli  to  be  said  of  liim  ;  this 
Economist  King  having  always  kept  himself  well  at  home, 
and  looked  steadily  to  his  own  affairs.  So  that  for  the  ])res- 
ent  he  has,  as  a  King,  next  to  nothing  of  what  is  called  His- 
tory ;  and  it  is  only  as  a  fellow-man,  of  singular  faculty,  and 
in  a  most  peculiar  and  conspicuous  situation,  that  he  can  be 
interesting  to  mankind.  To  us  he  has,  as  Father  and  daily 
teacher  and  master  of  young  Fritz,  a  continual  interest ;  and 
we  must  note  the  master's  ways,  and  the  main  phenomena  of 
the  workshop  as  they  successively  turned  up,  for  the  sake  of 
the  notable  Apprentice  serving  there. 

He  was  not  tall  of  stature,  this  arbitrary  King :  a  florid- 
complexioned  stout-built  man ;  of  serious,  sincere,  authorita- 
tive face  ;  his  attitudes  and  equipments  very  Spartan  in  type. 
Man  of  short  firm  stature ;  stands  (in  Pesne's  best  Portraits 
of  him)  at  his  ease,  and  yet  like  a  tower.  Most  solid  ; 
''  j^lumb  and  rather  more ; "  eyes  steadfastly  awake ;  cheeks 
slightly  compressed,  too,  which  fling  the  mouth  rather  for- 
ward ;  as  if  asking  silently,  "  Anything  astir,  then  ?  All 
right  here  ?  "  Face,  figure  and  bearing,  all  in  him  is  expres- 
sive of  robust  insight,  and  direct  determination;  of  healthy 
energy,  practicality,  unquestioned  authority,  —  a  certain  air 
of  rovaltv  reduced  to  its  simi.l  -^t  form.      The    face,  in  Pic- 


338  HIS  APrUENTICESIIlP,   FIUST  STACK.     ».><.»  FV. 

I7i;i-i7-i;». 

tares  by  Pesne  and  others,  is  not  beautiful  or  agreeable ; 
lu'althy,  genuiiio,  authoritative,  is  the  lx*st  you  can  say  of  it. 
Yt't  it  may  have  Imm-ii,  what  it  is  descrilK'd  as  iK'ing,  originally 
handsome.  High  enough  arched  brow,  rather  copious  cheeks 
and  jaws  ;  nose  smallish,  inclining  to  be  stumpy ;  large  gray 
eyes,  bright  with  st»ady  lire  and  life,  often  enough  gloomy 
and  severe,  but  capable  of  jolly  laughter  too.  Eyes  "natu- 
rally with  a  kind  of  laugh  in  them,"  says  Piillnitz;  —  which 
laugh  t'.ui  bhi/e  out  int*»  fearful  thunderous  rage,  if  you  give 
him  provocation.  Especially  if  you  lie  to  him  ;  for  that  he 
hates  alM)Vo  all  things.  IxK>k  him  straight  in  the  face  :  ho 
fancies  he  can  see  in  your  eyes,  if  there  is  an  internal  men- 
dacity in  you  :  wherefore  you  must  look  at  him  in  sjH'aking ; 
such  is  his  standing  onler. 

His  hair  is  flaxen,  falling  into  the  ash-gray  t)r  darker;  tine 
copious  flowing  hair,  while  he  wore  it  natural.  lUit  it  smm 
got  tied  into  clulis,  in  the  military  styh' ;  and  at  length  it  was 
altogether  erojUK'd  away,  and  n-phu'ed  by  br«»wn,  and  at  last 
by  white,  round  wigs.  Which  latter  also,  though  bad  wigs, 
becime  him  not  amiss,  under  his  cocked-hat  and  co<ka<le,  says 
IMllnitz.'  The  voice,  I  guess,  even  when  not  lou«l,  was  of 
clangorous  and  ])enetrating,  qua.si-metallic  nature  ;  and  I  learn 
expressly  v)nce,  that  it  bad  a  nasal  quality  in  it.'  His  Majesty 
S|)oko  through  the  nose ;  siniftled  his  siK'eeh  in  an  earnest 
ominously  plangent  mannt-r.  In  angry  moments,  which  were 
frequent,  it  must  have  Ix'en  —  unplea.sant  to  listen  to.  For 
the  rest,  a  handsome  man  of  his  inches  ;  conspicuously  well- 
built  in  limbs  and  iKxly,  and  delicately  finished  off  to  the  very 
extremities.  His  feet  and  legs,  says  Pollnitz,  were  very  fine. 
The  hands,  if  he  would  have  taken  care  of  them,  were  Ix-auti- 
fully  white  ;  fingers  long  and  thin ;  a  hand  at  once  nimble 
to  grasp,  delicate  to  feel,  and  strong  to  clutch  and  hold : 
what  may  be  called  a  beautiful  hand,  because  it  U  the  use- 
fulest. 

Nothing  could  exceed  his  Majesty's  simplicity  of  habitudes. 
But  one  loves  especially  in  him  his  scrupulous  att*;ntion  to 

»  Piillnitz.  Memoiren  (Berlin,  1791),  ii.  568. 
'  Biischiiig,  lidirage,  i.  568. 


*^'"A'--  I^^  HIS   MAJESTY'S  WAYS.  339 

cleunliuoss  of  person  and  of  environment.  He  washed  like  a 
very  Mussulman,  five  times  a  day  ;  loved  cleanliness  in  all 
things,  to  a  superstitious  extent ;  which  trait  is  pleasant  iu 
the  rugged  man,  and  indeed  of  a  piece  with  the  rest  of  his 
character.  He  is  gradually  clianging  all  his  silk  and  other 
clotli  room-furniture  ;  in  his  hatred  of  dust,  he  will  not  sutt'er 
a  lh»or-carpet,  even  a  stuffed  chair;  but  insists  on  having  all 
of  wood,  where  the  dust  may  be  ])rosecuted  to  destruction.' 
Wife  and  womankind,  and  those  that  tiike  after  them,  let  such 
lyive  stuffing  and  sofas  :  he,  for  his  jiart,  sits  on  mere  wooden 
chairs  ;  —  sits,  and  also  thinks  and  acts,  after  the  manner  of 
a  Hyperboreaji  Spartan,  which  he  was.  He  ate  heartily,  but 
;is  a  nrngh  farna-r  and  hunter  eats ;  country  messes,  good 
ro;ust  and  boiled  ;  despising  the  French  Cook,  as  an  entity 
without  meaning  for  him.  His  favorite  dish  at  dinner  was 
bacon  and  greens,  rightly  dressed  ;  wluit  could  the  Freneh 
Cook  do  for  such  a  man  ?  He  ate  with  rapidity,  almost  with 
indiscriminate  violence :  his  object  not  quality  but  quantity. 
He  drank  too,  but  did  not  get  drunk  :  at  the  Doctor's  order 
he  could  al)stain;  and  had  iu  later  years  abstained.  I'ollnitz 
praises  his  fineness  of  complexion,  the  originally  eminent 
whiteness  of  his  skin,  which  he  Inul  tanned  and  bronzed  by 
hard  riding  and  hunting,  and  otherwise  worse  discolored  by 
his  manner  of  feeding  and  digesting :  alas,  at  last  his  waist- 
coat came  to  measure,  I  am  afraid  to  say  how  many  Prussian 
ells,  —  a  very  considerable  diameter  indeed  !  - 

For  some  j^ears  after  his  accession  he  still  appeared  occa- 
sionally in  "  burgher  dress,"  or  unmilitary  clothes ;  "  brown 
English  coat,  yellow  waistcoat "  and  the  other  indispensables. 
But  this  fashion  became  rarer  with  him  every  year ;  and 
ceased  altogether  (say  Chronologists)  about  the  year  1719 : 
after  which  he  appeared  always  simply  as  Colonel  of  the 
Potsdam  Guards  (his  own  Lifeguard  Kegiment)  in  simple 
Prussian  uniform  :  close  military  coat ;  blue,  with  red  cuffs 
and  collar,  buff  waistcoat  and  breeches ;  white  linen  gaiters 
to  the  knee.  He  girt  his  sword  about  the  loins,  well  out  of 
the  mud ;  walked  always  with  a  thick  bamboo  in  his  hand, 
i  Forster,  i.  208.  2  i^.  j.  i63. 


340  HIS  APPRENTICESHIP,  FIRST  STAGE.     Book  IV. 

I7i;j-i:23. 

Steady,   not  slow   of  step ;    with  his  triangiilar   hat,   crcam- 

wliite   round   wig   (in   his   older   days),  and    face  tending  to 

purjde,  —  the   eyes    looking   out    mere    investigation,   sharp 

swift  authority,  and  dangerous  readiness   to  rebuke   and  set 

the  cane  in  motion :  —  it  was  so   he  walked   abroad    in    this 

earth;  and  the  common  run  of  men  rather  fled  his  apj)roaeh 

than  courted  it. 

For,  in  fact,  he  was  dangerous ;  and  would  ask  in  an  alarm- 
ing manner,  '•  Who  are  you  ?  "  Any  fantastic,  much  more 
any  suspicious-looking  person,  might  fare  the  worse.  An  i<ne 
lounger  at  the  street-corner  he  has  been  known  to  hit  over  the 
crown;  and  i)erempturily  despatch :  '' Home,  Sirrah,  and  take 
to  some  work  !  "  That  the  Apple-women  be  encouraged  to 
knit,  while  waiting  for  custom  ;  —  encouraged  and  quietly 
constrained,  and  at  length  packed  away,  and  their'  stiills  Uiken 
from  them,  if  unconstrainable,  —  there  has,  as  we  observed, 
an  especial  rescript  been  put  forth ;  very  curious  to  read.' 

Dandiacal  tigures,  nay  peojde  looking  like  Frenchmen,  idle 
flaunting  women  even,  —  IxHter  for  them  to  be  going.  *'  Who 
are  you?"  and  if  you  lied  or  prevaricated  ("A>  bUcke  mith 
gemde  an,  Look  me  in  the  face,  then  ! "),  or  even  stumljled, 
hesitated,  and  gave  suspicion  of  prevaricating,  it  might  be 
worse  for  you.  A  soft  answer  is  less  effectual  than  a  promj^t 
clear  one,  to  turn  away  wrath.  ''  A  Candidntus  Theolmjiir^ 
your  Majesty,"  answered  a  handfast  threatll)are  youth  one  day, 
when  questioned  in  this  manner.  —  "  Where  from  ?  "  "  Berlin, 
your  Majesty."  —  '*  Hm,  na,  the  Berliners  are  a  good-for-noth- 
ing set."  "  Yes,  truly,  too  many  of  them  ;  but  there  are  excep- 
tions ;  I  know  two."  —  "  Two  ?  which  then  ?  "  "  Your  Majesty 
and  myself !  "  —  ^lajesty  burst  into  a  laugh  :  the  Candida- 
tus  was  got  examined  by  the  Consistoriums,  and  Authorities 
proper  in  that  matter,  and  put  into  a  chaplaincy. 

This  King  did  not  love  the  French,  or  their  fashions,  at  all. 
Vse  said  he  dismissed  the  big  Peruke,  —  put  it  on  for  the  last 
time  at  his  Father's  funeral,  so  far  did  filial  piety  go ;  and  then 
packed  it  aside,  dismissing  it,  nay  banishing  and  proscribing 

^  In  Rodeubeck,  Beitrdge,  p.  15. 


Chap.  IV.  HIS  MAJESTY'S  WAYS.  341 

1713-1723. 

it,  never  to  appear  more.  The  Peruke,  and,  as  it  were,  all  that 
the  Peruke  symbolized.  For  this  was  a  King  come  into  the 
world  with  quite  other  aims  than  that  of  wearing  big  perukes, 
and,  regardless  of  expense,  playing  burst-frog  to  the  ox  of 
Versailles,  which  latter  is  itself  perhaps  a  rather  useless 
animal.  Of  Friedrich  Wilhelm's  taxes  upon  wigs  ;  of  the  old 
"  Wig-inspectors,"  and  the  feats  they  did,  plucking  off  men's 
periwigs  on  the  street,  to  see  if  the  government-stamp  were 
there,  and  to  discourage  wiggery,  at  least  all  but  the  simple 
scratch  or  useful  Welsh-wig,  among  mankind :  of  these,  and 
of  other  similar  things,  I  could  speak  ;  but  do  not.  This  little 
incident,  which  occurred  once  in  the  review-ground  on  the  out- 
skirts of  Berlin,  will  suffice  to  mark  his  temi>er  in  that  respect. 
It  was  in  the  spring  of  1719;  our  little  Fritz  then  six  years 
old,  who  of  course  heard  much  temporary  confused  commentary, 
direct  and  oblique,  triumidiant  male  laughter,  and  perhaps 
rebellious  female  sighs,  on  occasion  of  such  a  feat. 

Count  Kotheuburg,  Prussian  by  birth,^  an  accomplished  and 
•able  person  in  the  diplomatic  and  other  lines  of  business,  but 
much  used  to  Paris  and  its  ways,  had  appeared  lately  in  Berlin, 
as  French  envoy,  —  and,  not  unnaturally,  in  high  French  cos- 
tume ;  cocked-hat,  peruke,  laced  coat,  and  the  other  trimmings. 
He,  and  a  group  of  dashing  followers  and  adherents,  were  ac- 
customed to  go  about  in  that  guise  ;  very  capable  of  proving 
infectious  to  mankind.  What  is  to  be  done  with  them  ?  thinks 
the  anxious  Father  of  his  People.  They  were  to  appear  at 
the  ensuing  grand  Review,  as  Friedrich  Wilhelm  understood. 
Wliereupon  Friedrich  Wilhelm  took  his  measures  in  private. 
Dressed  up,  namely,  his  Scavenger-Executioner  people  (what 
they  call  Profossen  in  Prussian  regiments)  in  an  enormous 
exaggeration  of  that  costume  ;  cocked-hats  about  an  ell  in 
diameter,  wigs  reaching  to  the  houghs,  with  other  fittings  to 
match :  these,  when  Count  Eothenburg  and  his  company  ap- 
peared upon  the  ground,  Friedrich  Wilhelm  summoned  out, 
with  some  trumpet-peal  or  burst  of  field-music;  and  they 
solemnly  crossed  Count  Eothenburg's  field  of  vision  ;  the 
strangest  set  of  Phantasms  he  had  seen  lately.     Awakening 

*  Buchholz,  Neueste  Preussisch-Brandenburqische  Geschichte,  i.  28. 


o42  HIS  ArPREXTiCE?iiir.  riKST  stack,   book  iv. 

171.J-i:23. 

salutary  reflections  in  liim.*  Fancy  that  scene  in  History; 
Frit'ilrich  Williclm  lor  connc-symbolic  Draniaturijist.  Gods 
and  men  (or  at  least  Jloiiyhniinni  horses)  might  have  saluted  it 
with  a  Homeric  laugh,  —  so  huge  and  vacant  is  it,  with  a  sus- 
picion of  real  humor  too:  —  but  the  men  were  not  permitted, 
on  parade,  more  tlian  a  silent  grin,  or  general  irrepressible 
rustling  murmur  ;  ami  only  the  gotls  laughed  inextinguishably, 
if  so  disposed.  The  Scavenger-Kx«'eutioners  went  bax-k  to  their 
place;  and  Count  Kothenburg  t(K»k  a  plain  (lerman  costume, 
so  long  as  he  continued  in  those  parts. 

Friedrieh  Wilhelm  has  a  dumb  rough  wit  and  UKK-kery,  of 
that  kind,  on  many  occasions  ;  not  without  geniality  in  its 
lirolxlignag  exaggeration  and  simplicity.  Like  a  wild  bear  of 
the  woods  taking  his  sport ;  with  .stune  sense  of  humor  in  the 
rough  skin  of  him.  Vitv  capable  of  seeing  through  sumptuous 
costumes ;  and  respectful  of  realities  alone.  Not  in  French 
sumptuosity,  but  in  native  German  thrift,  does  this  King  see 
his  salvation;  so  :ia  Nature  constructed  him:  and  the  world 
whieh  ha.s  long  lost  its  Spartiins,  will  see  again  an  original 
North-German  Spartan;  and  shriek  a  g()fHl  deal  over  him; 
N:iture  keeping  her  own  counsel  the  while,  and  as  it  were, 
laughing  in  her  sleeve  at  the  shrieks  of  the  flunky  world. 
For  Nature,  when  she  makes  a  Spartan,  means  a  good  deal  by 
it;  and  does  not  exjx'et  instant  aj>plauses,  but  only  gradual 
and  hvsting. 

"  For  my  own  part,"  exclaims  a  certain  Editor  once,  **  I  per- 
ceive well  there  was  never  yet  any  great  Empire  founded, 
Roman,  English,  down  to  Prussian  or  Dutch,  nor  in  fact  any 
great  mass  of  work  got  achieved  under  the  Sun,  but  it  was 
founded  even  upon  this  humble-looking  quality  of  Thrift,  and 
became  achievable  in  virtue  of  the  same.  A\Tiich  will  seem 
a  strange  doctrine,  in  these  days  of  gold-nuggets,  railway- 
fortunes,  and  miraculous  sumptuosities  regardless  of  expense. 
Earnest  readers  are  invited  to  consider  it,  nevertheless.  Though 
new,  it  is  very  old ;  and  a  sad  meaning  lies  in  it  to  us  of  these 

'  Fiirster,  i.  165  ;  Fassmann,  />Vn  ttnd  ThaUn  des  ailerdtirchlduchliijsten  ofc. 
Kdnigs  von  Preussen  Frederici  Wiihdmi  (Hamburg  und  Breslan,  1735),  pp 
22.3,  319. 


Chap.  IV.      •  HIS   MAJESTY'S    \VA\S.  343 

17i;J-1723. 

times  !  That  you  have  squandered  in  idle  fooleries,  building 
where  there  was  no  basis,  your  Hundred  Thousand  Sterling, 
your  Eight  Hundi-ed  Million  Sterling,  is  to  lue  a  comparatively 
small  matter.  You  may  still  again  become  rich,  if  you  have 
at  hust  become  wise.  But  if  you  have  wasted  your  capacity  of 
strenuous,  devoutly  valiaut  labor,  of  patience,  perseverance, 
self-denial,  faith  in  the  causes  of  effects;  alas,  if  your  once  just 
judgment  of  what  is  worth  something  and  what  is  worth  notli- 
ing,  has  been  wasted,  and  your  silent  steadfast  reliance  on 
the  general  veracities,  of  yourself  and  of  things,  is  no  longer 
there,  —  then  indeed  you  hav»'  had  a  loss  !  You  are,  in  fact, 
an  entirely  bankrupt  individual;  as  you  will  find  by  and  by. 
Y''es ;  and  though  you  luul  California  in  fee-simple ;  and  could 
l>uy  all  the  upholsteries,  groceries,  funded-properti»'s,  ti'mjjo- 
rary  (very  tenqtorary)  landed  properties  of  the  world,  at  one 
swoop,  it  would  avail  you  nothing.  Henceforth  for  you  no 
harvests  in  the  Seedlield  of  this  Universe,  which  reserves  its 
salutary  bounties,  and  noble  heaven-sent  gifts,  for  quite  other 
than  you;  and  I  would  not  give  a  pin's  value  for  all  you  will 
ever  reap  there.  Mere  imaginary  harvests,  sacks  of  nuggets 
and  the  like;  empty  as  the  eivst-wind;  —  with  all  the  Demons 
laughing  at  you  !  Do  you  consider  that  Nature  too  is  a  swollen 
flunky,  hungry  for  veils ;  and  can  be  tiiken  in  with  your  sub- 
lime airs  of  sumptuosity,  and  the  large  balance  you  actually 
have  in  Lombard  Street  ?  Go  to  the  —  General  Cesspool,  with 
your  nuggets  and  your  ducats  I  " 

The  Hunky  world,  much  stript  of  its  plush'  and  fat  per- 
quisites, accuses  Friedrich  Wilhelm  bitterly  of  avarice  and  the 
cognate  vices.  But  it  is  not  so ;  intrinsically,  in  the  main,  his 
procedure  is  to  be  defined  as  4ionorable  thrift,  —  verging  to- 
wards avarice  here  and  there ;  as  poor  human  virtues  usually 
lean  to  one  side  or  the  other  I  He  can  be  magnificent  enough 
too,  and  grudges  no  expense,  when  the  occasion  seems  worthy. 
If  the  occasion  is  inevitable,  and  yet  not  quite  worthy,  I  have 
known  him  have  recourse  to  strange  shifts.  The  Czar  Peter, 
for  example,  used  to  be  rather  often  in  the  Prussian  Dominions, 
oftenest  on  business  of  his  own:  such  a  man  is  to  be  royally 
defrayed  while  with  us ;  yet  one  would  wish  it  done  cheap. 


344  HIS   Ari'Rr.NTICKSllII'.    nilST  stage.      Rook  IV. 

I7i;i-I72;j. 

Post-horses,  "two  Iniiidrcd  ami  oijjhty-sevon  at  every  station," 
lie  lias  from  the  Community  ;  Init  the  rest  ol"  his  expenses,  from 
Memel  all  tlie  way  to  Wesel  ?  Frictlrich  Wilhelm's  Miarginal 
response  to  his  Finanz-Direetorium,  requiring  orders  once  on 
that  suhjoet,  runs  in  the  following  strange  tenor:  "Yes,  all 
the  way  (cxcrpt  lierlin,  which  I  take  upon  myself) ;  and  ol>- 
serve,  you  contrive  to  do  it  for  6,0<M)  thalers  (£900),"  —  which 
is  uncommonly  cheap,  alxjut  db'l  j)er  mile  ;  — "  won't  allow  you 
one  other  penny  {jiit  chirn  I'ft'nn'uj  gebe  iiu-hr  dazu);  but  you 
are  (sollen  »*?iV),"  this  is  the  remarkable  point,  "  to  give  out  in 
the  world  that  it  costs  me  from  Thirty  to  Forty  Thousand  ! " ' 
So  that  hero  is  the  Majesty  of  Trussia,  who  beyond  all  men 
abhors  lies,  giving  orders  to  tell  one  ?  Alas,  yes ;  a  kind  of 
lie,  or  lib  (white  fib,  or  even  gray),  the  ])inch  of  Thrift  com- 
jx'Uingl  Ihit  what  a  window  into  the  artless  inn'er-man  of  his 
Majesty,  even  that  graij  fib ;  —  not  done  by  oneself,  but  ordereil 
to  1k>  done  by  the  servant,  a.s  if  that  were  cheaper  ! 

"  Verging  upon  avarice,''  sure  enough  :  but,  unless  we  are 
unjust  and  unkind,  he  can  by  no  means  be  descriljed  as  a 
Mlsrr  King.  He  collects  what  is  his  ;  gives  you  accurately 
what  is  yours.  For  wages  paid  he  will  see  work  done  ;  he 
will  ascertain  more  and  more  that  the  work  done  be  work 
needful  for  him  ;  and  strike  it  off,  if  not.  A  Spartan  man.  ;is 
we  said,  —  though  jirobably  he  knew  as  little  of  the  Spartans 
as  the  Spartiins  did  of  him.  lint  Nature  is  still  capable  of 
such  products  :  if  in  Hellas  long  ages  since,  why  not  in  Bran- 
denburg now  ? 


CHAPTER  V. 

FRIEDRICII    wilhelm's    OXE    WAR. 

OxE  of  Fritz's  earliest  strong  impressions  from  the  outer 
world  chanced   to  bo   of  War,  —  so   it  chanced,  though   he 
had    shown   too    little   taste    that   way,    and    could    not,   as 
>  1717:  Forstcr,  i.  213. 


CuAi..  V.        FRIEDRICII    WILIIELM'S  ONE   WAR.  345 

1715. 

yet,  understand  sucli  phenomena ;  —  and  there  must  have 
been  much  semi-articulate  questioning  and  dialoguing  with 
Dame  de  Tloucoulles,  on  his  part,  about  the  matter  now 
going  on. 

In  the  year'  1715,  little  Fritz's  third  year,  came  grand 
doings,  not  of  drill  only,  but  of  actual  war  and  fighting :  the 
''  Stralsund  Expi'(lition,"  Friedrich  Wilhelin's  one  feat  in  that 
kind.  Huge  rumor  of  which  tills  naturally  the  maternal  heart, 
the  Berlin  Palace  drawing-rooms ;  and  occupies,  with  new 
vivid  interests,  all  imaginations  young  and  old.  For  the  ac- 
tual battle-ilrums  are  now  beating,  the  big  cannon-wains  are 
creaking  under  way  ;  and  milittiry  men  take  farewell,  and 
march,  trami»,  tramp ;  Majesty  in  grenadier-guard  uniform  at 
their  head  :  horse,  f(»ot  and  artillery  ;  northwanl  to  Stralsund 
on  the  Haltic  shore,  where  a  terrible  human  Lion  lias  taken 
up  liis  lair  lately.  Charles  XII.  of  Sweden,  namely  ;  he  has 
liroken  out  of  Turkish  Ueiider  or  Demotica,  and  ended  his 
obstinate  torpor,  at  hust ;  has  ridden  fourteen  or  sixteen  days, 
he  and  a  groom  or  two,  through  desolate  steppes  and  moun- 
tain wildernesses,  througli  crowded  dangerous  cities;  —  "came 
1)V  Vienna  and  by  Cassel,  then  through  Ponimern  ;  "  leaving  his 
"  royal  train  of  two  thousand  persons  "  to  follow  at  its  leisure. 
He,  for  his  part,  has  ridden  without  pause,  forward,  ever 
forward,  in  darkest  incognito,  the  indefatigable  man;  —  and 
finally,  on  Old-Hallowmas  Eve  (22d-llth  November,  1714), 
far  in  the  night,  a  Horseman,  with  two  others  still  following 
him,  travel-splashed,  and  "  white  with  snow,"  drew  bridle  at 
the  gate  of  Stralsund ;  and,  to  the  surprise  of  the  Swedish 
sentinel  there,  demanded  instant  admission  to  the  Governor. 
Tlie  Governor,  at  first  a  little  surly  of  humor,  saw  gradually 
how  it  was ;  sprang  out  of  bed,  and  embraced  the  knees  of 
the  snowy  man  ;  Stralsund  in  general  sprang  out  of  bed,  and 
illuminated  itself,  that  same  Hallow-Eve :  —  and  in  brief, 
Charles  XII.,  after  five  years  of  eclipse,  has  reappeared  upon 
the  stage  of  things ;  and  menaces  the  world,  in  his  old  fash- 
ion, from  that  City.  From  which  it  becomes  urgent  to  many 
parties,  and  at  last  to  Friedrich  Wilhelm  himself,  that  he  be 
dislodged. 


346  HIS   APPRENTICESHIP,  FIRST  STAGE.      n..„K  IV. 

17ia-1723. 

The  root  of  this  Stralsund  story  belongs  to  the  former  reign, 
as  (lid  the  grand  apparition  of  Charles  XII.  on  the  theatre  of 
Eiiroi)eau  History,  and  tl»e  terror  and  astonishment  he  created 
there.  He  is  now  thirty-three  years  okl ;  and  oidy  the  wind- 
ing lip,  Itoth  of  him  and  of  the  Stral.snnd  story,  falls  within 
our  present  field.  Filtcen  years  ago,  it  was  like  the  bursting 
of  a  cataract  of  Iwnib-sliells  in  a  dull  ball-room,  the  sudden 
ajtpt'aranee  of  this  young  tigliting  Swede  among  the  luxurious 
Kings  ;uid  Kinglets  of  the  North,  all  lounging  al>out  and 
languidly  minuetting  in  that  manner,  regardless  of  expense  ! 
Fricdrich  IV.  of  Denmark  n-joicing  over  red  wine  ;  August 
the  Strong  gradually  producing  his  "three  hundred  and  litty- 
four  bastards  ;  "  '  these  and  other  neighbors  had  confidently 
stept  in,  on  various  pretexts ;  thinking  to  help  themselves 
from  the  3'oung  man's  proj>erties,  who  was  .still  a  minor ; 
when  the  young  minor  suddenly  develo|)ed  himself  as  a  major 
and  maximus,  and  turned  out  to  l>e  such  a  Fire-King  among 
them  ! 

In  consequence  of  which  there  had  been  no  end  of  Northern 
troubles  ;  ami  all  through  the  Loui.s-Fourteenth  or  Marlbor- 
ough grand  '*  Succession  War,"  a  special  "  Northern  War "' 
had  burnt  or  smouldered  on  its  own  score ;  Swedes  t^ersvs 
Saxons,  Russians  and  Danes,  bickering  in  weary  intricate  con- 
test, ami  keeping  tho.se  Northern  regions  in  smoke  if  not  on 
iir(>.  Charles  XII.,  for  the  last  five  years  (ever  since  Pultawa, 
and  the  summer  of  1700),  had  lain  obstinately  dormant  in 
Turkey ;  urging  the  Turks  to  destroy  Czar  Peter.  Which 
they  absolutely  could  not,  though  they  now  and  then  tried  ; 
and  Viziers  not  a  few  lost  their  heads  in  consequence.  Charles 
lay  sullenly  dormant ;  Danes  meanwhile  operating  upon  his » 
Holstein  interests  and  adjoining  territories ;  Saxons,  Russians, 
battering  continually  at  Swedish  Pomraern,  continually  march- 
ing thither,  and  then  marching  home  again,  without  success, 
—  always  through  the  Brandenburg  Territory,  as  they  needs 
must.  Which  latter  circumstance  Friedrich  Wilhelm,  while 
yet  only  Crown-Prince,  had  seen  with  natural  disjdeasure, 
could  that  have  helped  it.  But  Charles  XII.  would  not  yield 
'  Me'moircs  de  iMinith  ( Wilhelmina's  Book,  Londrcs,  1812),  i.  111. 


CiiAH.  V.        ^KIEDRICII   WILHELM'S  ONE  WAR.  347 

1715. 

a  wliit ;  sent  orders  peremptorily,  from  his  bed  at  Bcuder  or 
Demotica,  that  there  must  be  no  surrender.  Neither  couhl 
the  shiggish  enemy  compel  surrender. 

So  that,  at  length,  it  had  grown  a  feeble  weai'isome  welter 
of  inextricable  strifes,  with  worn-out  combatants,  exhausted 
of  all  but  their  animosity ;  and  seemed  as  if  it  would  never 
end.  Inveterate  inettective  war  ;  ruinous  to  all  good  interests 
in  those  parts.  What  miseries  had  Holstein  from  it,  which 
last  to  our  own  day  !  Mecklenburg  also  it  involved  in  sore 
troybles,  which  lasted  long  enough,  as  we  shall  see.  But  Bran- 
denburg, above  all,  may  be  impatient ;  Brandenburg,  which 
hjuj  no  business  with  it  except  that  of  unlucky  neighborhood. 
One  of  Friedrich  Wilhelm's  very  first  operations,  as  King,  was 
to  end  this  ugly  state  of  matters,  which  he  had  witnessed  with 
impatience,  as  Prince,  for  a  long  while. 

He  had  hailed  even  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht  with  welcome,  in 
hopes  it  might  at  le;ist  end  these  Northern  brabbles.  This 
the  Treaty  of  Utrecht  tried  to  do,  but  could  not :  however, 
it  gave  him  back  his  Prussian  Fighting  Men  ;  which  he  has 
already  increased  by  six  regiments,  raised,  we  may  perceive, 
on  the  ruins  of  his  late  court-tiunkies  and  dismissed  gold- 
sticks  ; —  with  these  Friedrich  Wilhelm  will  try  to  end  it 
himself.  These  he  at  once  ordered  to  form  a  Camp  on  his 
frontier,  close  to  that  theatre  of  contest ;  and  signified  now 
with  emphasis,  in  the  beginning  of  1713,  that  he  decidedly 
wished  there  were  peace  in  those  Pommern  regions.  Nego- 
tiations in  consequence  ;  *  very  wide  negotiations,  Louis  XIV. 
and  the  Kaiser  lending  hand,  to  pacify  these  fighting  North- 
ern Kings  and  their  Czar:  at  length  the  Holstein  Government, 
representing  their  sworn  ally,  Charles  XII.,  on  the  occasion, 
made  an  offer  which  seemed  promising.  They  proposed  that 
Stettin  and  its  dependencies,  the  strong  frontier  Town,  and, 
as  it  were,  key  of  Swedish  Pommern,  should  be  evacuated  by 
the  Swedes,  and  be  garrisoned  by  neutral  troops,  Prussians 
and  Holsteiners  in  equal  number ;  which  neutral  troops  shall 
prohibit  any  hostile  attack  of  Pommern  from  w^ithout,  Sweden 
engaging  not  to  make   any   attack  through  Pommern  from 

1  lOth  June,  1713:  Buchhok,  i.  21. 


348  Ills  APiniENTlCESIIlP,  FIRST  STAGE.     B,k.k  IV. 

within.  That  will  be  as  good  as  peace  in  Pommern,  till  we 
get  a  general  Swedish  i'eace.  With  whieh  Friedrieh  Wilhelm 
gladly  complies.^ 

Unhappily,  however,  the  Swedish  Commandant  in  Stettin 
would  not  give  up  the  place,  on  any  representative  or  sec- 
ondary authority ;  nut  without  an  express  order  in  his  King's 
own  hand.  \\  Inch,  us  his  King  was  far  away,  in  ab.struse 
Turkish  eircuin.stanees  and  loealities,  could  nut  he  had  at  the 
numient;  and  involved  new  difficulties  and  uncertainties,  new 
delay  which  might  itself  be  fatal.  The  end  was,  the  Kussians 
and  Saxons  had  to  cannonade  the  nuin  out  by  regular  siege  : 
they  th«'n  gave  up  the  Town  to  Prussia  and  Ilolstein  ;  but  re- 
quired first  to  be  paid  their  expenses  incurred  in  sieging  it,  — 
400,000  thah'rs,  as  they  conqjuted  and  demonstrated,  or  some- 
where about  .t*(jO,000  uf  our  niuney. 

Friedrieh  Wilhelm  paid  the  money  (Ilolstein  not  having  a 
grosciien) ;  took  possession  of  the  Town,  and  dependent  towns 
and  forts  ;  intending  well  to  keep  them  till  repaid.  This  was 
in  October,  1713;  and  ever  since,  there  has  been  actual  tran- 
quillity in  those  parts  :  the  embers  of  the  Northern  War  may 
still  burn  or  smuulder  elsewhere,  but  here  they  are  (juite 
extinct.  At  first,  it  was  a  joint  possession  of  Stettin,  llol- 
steiners  and  Prussians  in  ecjual  number;  and  if  Friedrieh  Wil- 
ludm  had  been  sure  of  his  nu)uey,  so  it  would  have  continued. 
Put  the  llolsteiners  had  paid  nothing;  Charles  XII.'s  sanction 
never  could  be  expressly  got,  ami  the  Holsteiners  were  mere 
dependents  of  his.  Better  to  increase  our  Prussian  force,  liy 
degrees  ;  and,  in  some  good  way,  with  a  minimum  of  violence, 
get  the  Holsteiners  squeezed  out  of  Stettin  :  Friedrieh  Wil- 
helm has  so  ordered  and  contrived.  The  Prussian  force  hav- 
ing now  gradually  increased  to  double  in  this  important 
garrison,  the  Holsteiners  are  quietly  disarmed,  one  night,  and 
ordered  to  depart,  under  penalties  ;  —  which  was  done.  Hold- 
ing such  a  pawn-ticket  as  Stettin,  buttoned  in  our  own  pocket, 
we  count  now  on  being  paid  our  £(30,000  before  parting 
with   it. 

Matters  turned  out  as  Friedrieh  Wilhelm  had  dreaded  they 

1  22(1  Juue,  1713  :  Bucliliulz,  i.  21. 


C.IA1-.  V.         FKIEDRlCil    WILHELM'S   ONE   WxVR.  349 

1715. 

might.  Here  is  Cluirles  XII.  come  back ;  inflexible  as  cold 
Swedish  iron  ;  will  nut  hear  of  any  Treaty  dealing  with  his 
properties  in  that  manner  :  Is  he  a  bankrupt,  then,  that  you 
will  sell  his  towns  by  auction  ?  Charles  does  not,  at  heart, 
believe  that  Friedrich  Wilhelm  ever  really  paid  the  £G0,000  ; 
Charles  demands,  lor  his  own  pai't,  to  have  his  own  Swedish 
Town  of  Stettin  restored  to  him  ;  and  has  not  the  least  in- 
tention, or  indeed  ability,  to  pay  money.  Vain  to  answer  : 
"  Stettin,  for  the  present,  is  not  a  Swedish  Town  ;  it  is  a  ]*rus- 
sian  I'awn-tieket  !  "  —  There  was  much  negotiation,  corre- 
spondence ;  Louis  XIV.  and  the  Kaiser  stepping  in  again  to 
produce  settlement.  To  no  jiurpose.  Louis,  gallant  old  liank- 
rupt,  trieil  hard  to  take  Charles's  part  with  effect.  But  he 
had,  himself,  no  money  now  ;  could  only  try  finessing  by  am- 
bassadors, try  a  little  menacing  by  them  ;  neither  of  which 
profited.  Friedrich  Wilhelm,  wanting  only  peace  on  Ins 
borders,  after  fifteen  years  of  extraneous  uproar  there,  has 
paid  iiGO,UOO  in  hard  cash  to  have  it :  repay  him  that  sum, 
with  promise  of  peace  on  his  borders,  he  will  then  quit  Stettin  ; 
till  then  not.  Big  words  from  a  French  Ambassador  in  big 
wig,  will  not  suffice:  "Bullying  goes  for  nothing  (Z^a«ye  ma- 
chcn  gilt  iiie/it),^' — the  thing  covenanted  for  will  need  to  be 
done  !  Boor  Louis  the  Great,  whom  we  now  call  "Bankrupt- 
Great,"  died  while  these  affairs  were  pending;  while  Charles, 
his  ally,  was  arguing  and  battling  against  all  the  world,  with 
only  a  gramliloquent  Ambassador  to  help  him  from  Louis. 
"J'ai  trop  (lime  la  guerre''  said  Louis  at  his  death,  addressing 
a  new  small  Louis  (five  years  old),  his  great-grandson  and  suc- 
cessor :  "  I  have  been  too  fond  of  war ;  do  not  imitate  me  in 
that,  ne  m'imitex  jms  en  cela.-'  ^  Which  counsel  also,  as  we 
shall  see,  was  considerably  lost  in  air. 

Friedrich  Wilhelm  had  a  true  personal  regard  for  Charles 
XII.,  a  man  made  in  many  respects  after  his  own  heart ;  and 
would  fain  have  persuaded  him  into  softer  behavior.  But  it 
was  to  no  purpose.  Charles  would  not  listen  to  reasons  of 
policy ;  or  believe  that  his  estate  was  bankrupt,  or  that  his 
1  1st  September,  1715. 


350  HIS  AI'iniKNTICESHIP,   FIRST  STAfJK.      n<»«iK  IV. 

17ia-172.>. 

towns  could  1)0  put  in  pawn.  Danes,  Saxons,  Russians,  even 
CeorKC  1.  of  Euglaml  (Cieorijjt'  having  just  bouijlit.  of  the  Dan- 
ish King,  who  had  got  hold  of  it,  a  great  Ilanovi-r  liargain, 
Bremen  and  Verden,  on  cheap  terms,  from  the  quasi-bankrupt 
estate  of  poor  (.'harles).  —  have  to  eomhiue  against  him,  and  see 
to  i)ut  him  down.  Among  whom  Prussia,  at  h-ngth  actually 
attacked  by  Charles  in  the  Stettin  regions,  has  reluctantly  to 
take  the  lead  in  that  repressive  movement.  On  the  L'Sth  of 
April,  171"),  Friedrich  Wilhelm  declares  war  against  Charles;  is 
alreatly  on  march,  with  a  great  force,  towards  Stettin,  to  coerce 
and  rei)rcs3  said  Charles.  No  help  for  it,  so  sore  as  it  goes 
against  us  :  *' Why  will  the  very  King  whom  I  most  res[)ect 
compel  me  to  be  his  enemy  ?  "  said  Friedrich  Wilhelm.* 

One  of  Friedrich  Wilhelm's  originalities  is  his  farewell 
Order  and  Instruction,  to  his  three  chief  Ministers,  on  this 
occasion.  Ilgen,  Dohna,  Trinzen,  tacit  dusky  figures,  whom 
we  meet  in  Prussian  Hooks,  and  never  gain  the  least  idea  of, 
except  ius  of  grim,  ratlu-r  cunning,  most  reserved  anti(piarian 
grntlenuMi,  —  a  kind  of  human  iron-safes,  solemnly  tilled  (un- 
drr  triple  and  quadruple  patent-locks)  with  what,  ;Uas,  has 
now  all  grown  waste-])aj)er,  dust  and  cobweb,  to  us :  —  these 
three  reserved  cunning  CJentlemen  are  to  keep  a  thrice-watrh- 
ful  eye  on  all  subordinate  boards  and  persons,  and  see  well 
that  nobody  nod  or  do  amiss.  Brief  weekly  report  to  his 
Majesty  will  be  expected ;  staffettes,  should  cases  of  hot  haste 
occur :  any  questions  of  yours  are  ''  to  be  put  on  a  sheet  of 
paper  folded  down,  to  which  I  can  write  marginalia  :  "  if  noth- 
ing j)articular  is  passing,  *' nit  sc/i re iben,  yon  don't  write." 
I'ay  out  no  money,  except  what  falls  due  by  the  Books  ;  none ; 
—  if  an  extraordinary  case  for  payment  arise,  consult  my 
"Wife,  and  she  must  sign  her  order  for  it.  Generally  in  mat 
ters  of  any  moment,  consult  my  Wife  ;  but  her  only,  "except 
her  and  the  Privy  Councillors,  no  mortal  is  to  poke  into  my 
affairs  :  "  I  say  no  mortal,  "  so7isf  kcin  Mensrh." 

''  My  Wife  shall  be  told  of  all  things,"  he  says  elsewhere, 
"  and  counsel  asked  of  her."  The  rugged  Paterfamilias,  but 
the  human  one !    "  And  as  I  am  a  man,"  continues  he,  "  and 

^  (Euvrts  de  Frederic  (Histotre  de  Drandehonrg),  i.  132;  Buchholz,  L  28. 


Chap.  V.      'FRIEDRICII   WILIIELM'S   ONE   WAR.  351 

1715. 

may  be  shot  dead,  I  command  you  and  all  to  take  care  of 
Fritz  (fiir  Fritz  zu  snrgm),  as  God  shall  reward  j'ou.  And  1 
give  you  all,  Wife  to  begin  with,  my  curse  (mcinen  Fhtch), 
that  God  may  jninish  you  in  Time  and  Eternity,  if  you  do  not, 
after  my  death,''  —  do  what,  O  Heavens  ? —  "  bury  me  in  the 
vault  of  the  Schlosskirche,"  l*alace-Chureh  at  Berlin  !  "  And 
you  shall  make  no  grand  to-do  {kein  Festin)  on  the  occasion. 
On  your  body  and  life,  no  festivals  and  ceremonials,  except 
that  the  regiments  one  after  the  other  fire  a  volley  over  me." 
Is  rtot  this  an  ursine  man-of-genius,  in  some  sort,  as  we  once 
defined  him?  He  adds  suddenly,  and  eoneludes:  "I  am  as- 
suretl  you  will  manage  everything  with  all  the  exactness  in 
the  world  ;  ftir  which  1  shall  ever  zealously,  a^  long  as  I  live, 
b?  your  friend."  * 

l\\issians,  S;ixons  affected  to  intend  joining  Friedrich  Wil- 
helm  in  his  Pommern  Expedition  ;  and  of  the  latter  there 
did.  under  a  stMjalled  Field-Marshal  von  Waekerl)arth,  of  liigh 
jihuues  and  titles,  some  four  thousand  —  of  whom  oidy  Coloiud 
\b\\  Seekendorf,  commanding  one  of  the  horse-regiments,  is 
remarkable  to  us  —  come  and  serve.  Tlie  rest,  and  all  tlie 
Kussians,  he  was  as  well  pleased  to  have  at  a  distance.  Some 
sixteen  thousand  Danes  joined  him,  too,  with  the  King  of 
Denmark  at  tlieir  head ;  very  furious,  all,  against  the  Swedish- 
iron  Hero;  but  they  were  remarked  to  do  almost  no  real  ser- 
vice, except  at  sea  a  little  against  the  Swedish  ships.  George  1. 
also  had  a  fleet  in  the  Baltic  ;  but  only  "  to  protect  English 
commerce."  On  the  whole,  the  Siege  of  Stralsund,  to  wliich 
the  Campaign  ])retty  soon  reduced  itself,  was  done  mainl}-  by 
Friedrich  Wilhelm.  lie  stayed  two  months  in  Stettin,  get- 
ting all  his  preliminaries  completed  ;  his  good  Queen,  Wife 
'•  Feekin,"  was  with  him  for  some  time.  I  know  not  whether 
now  or  afterwards.  In  the  end  of  June,  he  issued  from  Stet- 
tin ;  took  the  interjacent  outpost  i)laces  ;  and  then  opened 
ground  before  Stralsund,  where,  in  a  few  days  more,  the 
Danes  joined  him.  It  was  now  the  middle  of  July :  a  com- 
bined  Army    of   well-nigh    forty   thousand   against   Charles  ; 

1  26th  April,  1715:  Cosmars  und  Klaproths  Staatsrath,  s.  223  (in  Stenzel, 
iii.  269) 


352  HIS  AI'PKENTICESIIIl',   FIUST  STAGE;      I^x.k  IV. 

who,  to  uuiM  his  works,  musters  about  the  fourth  jiart  of  that 
number.* 

Stralsund,  with  its  outer  lines  and  inner,  with  its  marshes, 
ditches,  rain|»arts  and  abundant  cannon  to  thi-m,  and  h'uning, 
one  side  of  it,  on  the  deep  sea,  which  Swedish  ships  command 
as  yet,  is  very  strong.  WaHenstein,  we  know,  once  tried  it 
with  furious  jussault,  with  bombardment,  sap  and  storm  ; 
swore  he  would  have  it,  "  though  it  hung  by  a  chain  from 
Heaven;"  but  could  not  get  it,  after  all  his  volcanic  raging; 
and  was  driven  away,  partly  by  the  Swedes  and  armed  Towns- 
folk, chiefly  by  the  marsh-fevers  and  continuous  rains.  Stral- 
sund has  been  taken,  since  that,  by  Prussian  sieging;  as  old 
men,  from  the  Great  Elector's  time,  still  rememl)er.'  To 
Louis  Fourteenth's  menacing  Ambassador,  Friedrich  \Vilhelm 
seems  to  intimate  that  indeed  big  bullying  words  will  not 
take  it,  but  that  Prussian  guns  and  men,  on  a  just  ground, 
still  may. 

The  detiiils  of  this  Siege  of  Stralsund  are  all  on  record,  and 
lia<l  once  a  certain  fame  in  the  world ;  but,  except  jis  a  distint 
echo,  must  not  concern  us  here.  It  Listed  till  midwinter, 
under  continual  tierce  countt>r-movemcnts  and  desiK-rate  sallies 
from  the  Swedish  Lion,  standing  at  Ixiy  there  against  all  the 
•\vt)rld.  Piut  Friedrich  ^^'illlelm  was  vigilance  itself;  and  he 
liad  his  Anhalt-Dessiius  with  him,  his  liorcks,  Buddinbrocks, 
Finkensteins,  veteran  men  and  captains,  who  liad  learned 
their  art  under  Marllxirough  and  Eugene.  The  Lion  King's 
fierce  sallies,  and  desj)erate  valor,  could  not  avail.  Point 
after  point  was  lost  for  him.  Kiippen,  a  Prussian  Lieutenant- 
Colonel,  native  to  the  place,  who  has  bathed  in  those  waters 
in  his  youth,  remembers  that,  by  wading  to  the  chin,  you 
could  get  round  the  extremity  of  Charles's  main  outer  line. 
Kijppen  stiites  his  project,  gets  it  approved  of ;  —  wades  ac- 
cordingly, with  a  select  party,  imder  cloud  of  night  (4th  of 
Kovember,  eve  of  Gunpowder-day,  a  most  cold-hot  job)  ;  other 
ranked   Prussian   battalions   awaiting  intently   outside,  with 

'  Panli,  viii.  85-101  ;  Buchholz,  i.  31-39;  Forster,  ii.  34-39  ;  Stenzel,  iil 
272-278. 

■^   10tli-15th  O.tt.licr.  1R7S  (Pauli.  r.  201.  205J. 


.HAP.  V.         FRIEDRICII   WILHELM'S  ONE    WAR.  3a3 

1715. 

shouldored  firelock,  invisible  in  the  dark;  what  will  become  of 
him.  Kuppen  wades  successlully ;  seizes  the  first  battery  of 
said  line,  —  masters  said  line  with  its  batteries,  the  outside 
battalions  and  he.  Irn-pressibly,  with  horrible  uproar  from 
without  and  from  within ;  the  flying  Swedes  scarcely  getting 
up  the  Town  drawbridge,  as  he  chased  tluiii.  That  important 
line  is  lost  to  Charles. 

Next  they  took  the  Isle  of  Kiigen  from  liin:,  which  shuts 
up  the  harbor.  Leopold  of  Anhalt-Dessau,  our  rugged  friend, 
in  Dtinish  boats,  which  were  but  ill  navigated,  contrives, 
about  a  week  after  that  Kiiitpen  feat,  to  effect  a  landing  on 
Riigcn  at  niglitfall  ;  beats  off  the  weak  Swedish  party  ;  —  en- 
trenches, jKilisadcs  himself  to  the  teeth,  and  lies  down  under 
arms.  That  latter  was  a  wise  precaution.  For,  about  four 
in  the  morning,  Charles  comes  in  person,  with  eight  pieces  of 
cannon  and  ft»ur  thousand  horse  and  foot:  Charles  is  struck 
with  amazement  at  the  palisade  and  ditch  (*'  Mem  Gott, 
win)  would  havi*  expected  this  ! "  he  was  heard  murmuring) ; 
dashes,  like  a  lire-flood,  against  ditch  and  palisade  ;  tears  at 
the  pales  himself,  which  prove  impregnable  to  Ids  cannon 
and  him.  He  storms  and  rages  forward,  again  and  again, 
now  here,  now  there ;  but  is  met  everywhere  by  stea^ly  deadly 
musketry ;  and  has  to  retire,  fruitless,  about  daybreak,  him- 
self wounded,  and  leaving  his  eight  cannons,  and  four  hundred 
slain. 

Poor  Charles,  there  hatl  been  no  sleep  for  him  that  night, 
and  little  for  very  many  nights  :  "  on  getting  to  horse,  on  the 
shore  at  Stralsund,  he  fainted  repeatedly ;  fell  out  of  one  faint 
into  another  ;  but  such  was  his  rage,  he  always  recovered 
himself,  and  got  on  horseback  again."  ^  Poor  Charles  :  a 
bit  of  right  royal  Swedish-German  stuff,  after  his  kind ;  and 
tragically  ill  bested  now  at  last !  This  is  his  exit  he  is  now 
making,  —  still  in  a  consistent  manner.  It  is  fifteen  years 
now  since  he  waded  ashore  at  Copenhagen,  and  first  heard  the 
bullets  whistle  round  him.  Since  which  time,  what  a  course 
has  he  run;  crashing  athwart  all  manner  of  ranked  armies, 
diplomatic  combinations,   right   onward,   like   a   cannon-ball  ; 

J  Buchholz,  i.  36. 
VOL     V.  23 


3.54  HIS  APPKENTICESIIIP,  FIRST  STAGE.     B.)ok  IT. 

17ia-1723. 

tearing  off  many  solemn  wigs  in  those  Northern  parts,  and 
scattering  them  upon  the  winds,  —  even  as  he  did  his  own 
full-bottom  wig,  impatiently,  on  that  first  day  at  Cof)enhagen, 
finding  it  iiniurthcrsome  lor  actual  business  in  battle,^ 

In  about  a  mouth  hence,  the  last  important  hornwork  is 
forced ;  Charles,  himself  seen  fiercely  fighting  on  the  place,  is 
swept  back  from  his  hist  liornwork  ;  and  the  general  storm, 
now  altogether  irresistible,  is  evidently  at  hand.  On  entreaty 
from  his  followers,  entreaty  often  renewed,  with  tears  even 
(it  is  said)  and  on  bemlcd  knees,  Charles  at  last  consents  to 
go.  He  left  no  orders  for  surrender  ;  would  not  name  the 
word  ;  "  left  only  ambiguous  vague  orders.''  Jiut  on  the  l*.)th 
Decemljer,  1715,  he  dt>es  at^tually  depart ;  gets  on  Ixjard  a  little 
Ixjat,  towards  a  Swedish  frigate,  which  is  lying  above  a  mile 
out ;  the  whole  road  to  which,  between  Kiigeu  and  the  main- 
land, is  now  solid  ice,  and  has  to  In?  cut  as  he  proceeds.  This 
slow  oi)erati()n,  whicli  l;i.st«*d  all  day,  was  visible,  and  its  mean- 
ing well  known,  in  the  besiegers'  lines.  The  King  of  Den- 
mark saw  it  ;  and  brought  a  battery  to  bear  upon  it ;  his 
thought  had  always  been,  that  Charles  should  be  cai)tured  or 
killed  in  Stralsund,  and  not  allowed  to  get  away.  Friedrich 
"Wiliielm  was  of  quite  another  mind,  and  hatl  even  used  secret 
influences  to  that  effect ;  eager  that  Charles  should  escape.  It 
is  said,  he  remonstrated  very  passionately  with  the  Danish 
King  and  this  battery  of  his  ;  nay,  some  add,  since  remon- 
strances did  not  avail,  and  the  battery  still  threatened  to  fire, 
Friedrich  Wilhelm  drew  up  a  Prussian  regiment  or  two  at  the 
muzzles  of  it,  and  said,  You  shall  shoot  us  first,  then.'  "SMiich 
is  a  pleasant  myth  at  least  ;  and  symbolical  of  what  the 
reality  was. 

Charles  reached  his  frigate  about  nightfall,  but  made  little 
way  from  the  place,  owing  to  defect  of  wind.  They  say,  he 
even  heard  the  chamade  beating  in  Stralsund  next  day,  and 
that  a  Danish  frigate  had  nearly  taken  him ;  both  which  state- 
ments are  perhaps  also  a  little  mythical.  Certain  only  that  he 
vanished  at  this  point  into  Scandinavia;  and  general  Europe 

^  KiJhler,  M undid usligungen,  xiv.  213. 
2  Buchholz.  p.  138. 


CiiAi-.  V.        FRIEDKlCll    WlLliELM'.S   UNE    WAR.  355 

1716. 

uever  saw  liiiii  more.  Vanished  into  a  cloud  of  untenable 
schemes,  guided  by  Alberoni,  Barou  Gortz  and  others ;  wild 
schemes,  tiuaucial,  diplomatic,  warlike,  nothing  not  chimerical 
in  them  but  his  own  unquenchable  real  energy  ;  —  and  found 
his  death  (by  assassination,  as  appears)  in  the  trenches  of 
Frederickshall,  among  the  Norway  Hills,  one  winter  night, 
three  years  hence.  Assassination  instigated  by  the  Swedish 
Otiicial  Persons,  it  is  thought.  The  bullet  passed  through  both 
his  temples ;  he  had  clapt  his  hand  upon  the  hilt  of  his  sword, 
and* was  found  leant  against  the  parapet,  in  that  attitude, — 
gone  upon  a  long  march  now.  So  vanished  Charles  Twelfth  ; 
the  distressed  UtHt*ial  Persons  and  Nobility  exj)l()ding  upon 
him  in  that  rather  damnable  way,  —  anxious  to  slip  their 
muzzles  at  any  cost  whatever.  A  man  of  antique  character  ; 
true  as  a  child,  simi)le,  even  bashful,  and  of  a  strength  and 
valor  rarely  exam|tled  among  men.  Open-hearted  Antique 
populations  would  have  much  worshipped  such  an  Appear- 
ance;—  Voltaire,  too,  for  the  artificial  Moderns,  has  made 
a- myth  of  him,  of  another  type;  one  of  those  impossible 
cast-iron  gentlemen,  heroically  mad,  such  as  they  show  in  the 
I'layhouses,  pleasant  but  not  profitable,  to  an  undiscerning 
rublic'  The  last  of  the  Swedish  Kings  died  in  this  way  ; 
and  the  unmuzzled  Official  Persons  have  not  made  much  of 
kinging  it  in  his  stead.  Charles  died;  and,  as  we  may  say, 
took  the  life  of  Sweden  along  with  him  ;  for  it  has  never 
shone  among  the  Nations  since,  or  been  much  worth  mention- 
ing, except  for  its  misfortunes,  spasmodic  impotences  and 
unwisdoms. 

Stralsund  instantly  beat  the  chamade,  as  we  heard  ;  and  all 
was  surrender  and  subjection  in  those  regions.  Surrender; 
not  yet  pacification,  not  while  Charles  lived  ;  nor  for  half  a 
century  after  his  death,  could  Mecklenburg,  Holstein-Gottorp, 
and  other  his  confederates,  escape  a  sad  coil  of  calamities 
bequeathed  by  him  to  them.  Friedrich  Wilhelm  returned  to 
Berlin,  victorious  from  his  first,  which  was  also  his  last  Prus- 

1  See  Adlerfeld  (Military  History  of  Charles  XII.  London,  1740,  3  vols., 
"from  the  Swedish,"  through  the  French)  and  Kcihler  {MUnzbelustigungen,  ubi 
Bupra),  for  some  authentic  traits  of  his  life  and  him. 


356  ills  Ai'i'KKNTlL'ESllil',   FIRST   STACJE.      U'-k  IV. 

17l;;-IT-2-J. 

sian  War,  in  January,  171o  ;  and  was  doubtless  a  happy  man, 
not  "  to  be  buried  in  the  Seldosskirche  (under  penalty  of  God's 
curse),"  hut  to  Hnd  his  little  Fritz  and  Feekin,  and  all  the 
world,  merry  to  see  liim,  and  all  things  put  square  again, 
abroad  as  at  home.  lie  forbade  the  "  triumphal  entry  "  which 
I'.crlin  was  })reparing  for  him;  entered  i»rivat«'ly ;  and  ordered 
a  thanksgiving  sermon  in  all  the  churches  next  Sunday. 

The  Devil  in  Haniess :   Creutz  the  Finance-Minister. 

In  the  King's  absence  nothing  particular  had  occurred,  — 
except  indeed  the  walking  of  a  dreadful  Spectre,  three  nights 
over,  in  the  corridors  of  the  Palace  at  Berlin;  past  the  doors 
where  our  little  Prince  and  Wilhelmina  slept  :^  bringing  with 
it  n(»t  airs  from  Heaven,  we  may  fear,  but  blasts  from  the 
Other  i»lace  !  The  stalwart  sentries  shook  in  their  paces,  and 
became  "half-<lea<l"  from  terror.  "A  hi>rrible  noise,  one 
night,''  says  Wilhelmina,  '*  wlien  all  were  buried  in  sleep :  all 
the  world  started  up.  thinking  it  was  lire ;  but  tiiey  were  much 
surprised  to  find  that  it  was  a  Spectre."  Evident  Spectre, 
seen  to  pass  this  way,  "and  glide  along  that  gallery,  as  if 
towards  the  apartments  of  the  Queen's  Ladies."  Captain  of 
the  Guard  could  find  nothing  in  that  gallery,  or  anywhere, 
and  withdrew  again:  —  but  lo,  it  returns  the  way  it  went! 
Stalwart  sentries  were  found  melted  into  actual  deliquium  of 
swooning,  as  the  Preternatural  swept  by  this  second  time. 
"They  said.  It  was  the  Devil  in  person:  raised  by  Swedish 
wizards  to  kill  the  Prince-Royal."'  Poor  Prince-Koyal ;  sleep- 
ing sound,  we  hope;  little  more  than  three  years  old  at  this 
time,  and  knowing  nothing  of  it  I  —  All  Berlin  talked  of  the 
affair.  People  dreaded  it  might  be  a  "  Spectre  "  of  Swedish 
tendencies ;  aiming  to  burn  the  Palace,  spirit  off  the  Royal 
Children,  and  do  one  knew  not  what  ? 

Isot  that  at  all,  by  any  means  !  The  Captain  of  the  Guard, 
reinforcing  himself  to  defiance  even  of  the  Preternatural,  does, 
on  the  third  or  fourth  apparition,  clutch  the  Spectre ;  finds 
him  to  be  —  a  prowling  Scullion  of  the  Palace,  employed  here 

'  Wilhelmiua,  Memoires  de  Dttreilh,  i.  18. 


<;nAi-.  V.         FRIEDRICll    WILIIELM'S   ONE    WAR.  357 

1715. 

he  will  not  say  how  ;  who  is  straightway  locked  in  prison,  and 
so  exorcised  at  least.  Exorcism  is  perfect ;  but  Berlin  is  left 
guessing  as  to  the  rest, — secret  of  it  discoverable  only  by  the 
Queen's  Majesty  and  some  few  most  interior  parties.  To  the 
following  ell'ect. 

Spectre-Scullion,  it  turns  out,  had  been  employed  by  Grum- 
kow,  as  spy  uix)n  one  of  the  Queen's  Maids  of  Honor,  — 
suspected  by  him  to  be  a  No-maid  of  Dishonor,  and  of  ill 
intentions  too, — who  lodges  in  that  part  of  the  Palace:  of 
whom  llerr  Grumkow  wishes  intensely  to  know,  "Has  she  an 
intrigue  with  Creutz  the  new  Finance-Minister,  or  has  she 
not  ?  "  "  Has,  bi'yond  doubt !  "  the  Spectre-Scullion  hopes  he 
has  discovered,  before  exorcism.  Uihdu  which  Grumkow, 
essentially  illuminated  as  to  the  required  particular,  manages 
to  get  the  Spectre-Scullion  loose  again,  not  quite  hanged;  gloz- 
ing  the  matter  off  to  his  Majesty  on  his  return :  for  the  rest, 
ruins  entirely  the  Creutz  speculation  ;  and  has  the  No-maid 
called  of  Honor  —  with  whom  Creutz  thought  to  have  seduced 
the  young  King  also,  and  made  the  young  King  amenable  — 
dismissed  from  Court  in  a  peremptory  irrefragable  manner. 
This  is  the  secret  of  the  Spectre-Scullion,  fully  revealed  by 
Wilhelmina  many  yeare  after. 

This  one  short  glance  into  the  Satan's  Invisible- World  of 
the  Berlin  Palace,  we  could  not  but  afford  the  reader,  when  an 
actual  Goblin  of  it  happened  to  be  walking  in  our  neighbor- 
hood. Such  an  Invisible- World  of  Satan  exists  in  most  human 
Houses,  and  in  ail  human  Palaces;  —  with  its  imj)s,  familiar 
demons,  spies,  go-betweens,  and  industrious  bad-angels,  con- 
tinually mounting  and  descending  by  their  Jacob's-Ladder,  or 
Palace  Backstairs :  operated  upon  by  Conjurers  of  the  Grum- 
kow-Creutz  or  otlier  sorts.  Tyrannous  Mamsell  Leti,^  treach- 
erous Mamsell  Ramen,  valet-surgeon  Eversmann,  and  plent}' 
more :  readers  of  Wilhelmina's  Book  are  too  well  acquainted 

'  Leti,  Ck)vemes3  to  TV^ilhelminn.  bnt  soon  dismissed  for  insolent  cruelty  and 
other  bad  conduct,  was  danghlor  of  that  Gregorio  Leti  ("  Protestant  Italian 
Refugee,"  "  Historiographer  of  Amsterdam,"  &c.  &c.),  who  once  had  a  pension 
in  this  country  ;  and  who  wrote  History-Books,  a  Life  of  Crotmcell  one  of  them, 
so  regardless  of  the  difference  between  true  and  false. 


358  lU.S  Ai'I'KKNTRESlIIl'     FIRST  ST.UJi:.      11*x'k  IV. 

1713  v.m. 

witli  them.     Nor  are  exj»ert  Conjurers  wanting;    eapable  to 

work  strange  feats  with  so  pUistic  an  element  as  Friedrich 

Wilhelm's  mind.     Lrt  this  one  short  glimpse  of  such  Subter- 

raneiui  World  be  sutHcient  indication  to  tlie  re;uU'r's  fancy. 

Crentz  was  not  dismissed,  as  some  peo])h'  h;ul  expected  lie 
might  Im?.  Creutz  continues  Finance-Minister;  makes  a  great 
figure  in  the  fashionable  lierlin  world  in  these  coming  years, 
and  is  much  talked  of  in  the  oUl  liooks,  —  though,  as  he  works 
mostly  underground,  and  merely  does  budgets  and  finance' 
matters  with  extreme  talent  and  success,  we  shall  hope  U>  heat 
almost  nothing  more  of  him.  Majesty,  while  Crown-l'rince, 
when  he  first  got  his  regiment  from  Tapa,  had  fouml  thia 
Creutz  ''  Auditor  ''  in  it ;  a  poor  but  liaiulsoi\ie  fellow,  with 
perhajts  seven  shillings  a  week  to  live  upon  ;  but  with  such 
a  talent  for  arnuiging,  for  reckoning  and  recording,  in  brief 
for  controlling  tiuauee,  as  more  and  more  charmed  the  royal 
mind.* 

One  of  Majesty's  first  acts  was  to  appoint  liim  Finance- 
^linisti'r ;  ■^  luul  there  he  continued  steaily,  not  t*)  Ixi  overset 
by  little  fhiws  of  wind  like  this  of  the  Spectre-Scullion's  rais- 
ing. It  is  certain  he  did,  himst^df,  become  rich;  and  helped 
well  to  make  his  Majesty  so.  We  are  to  fancy  him  his  Maj- 
esty's bottle-holder  in  that  kittle  with  the  Finance  Nighlmarea 
and  Imbroglios,  wluMi  so  much  had  to  be  subjugated,  and 
drilled  inU>  step,  in  that  d»'partnient.  Evidently  a  long-heatled 
cunning  fellow,  much  of  the  Crumkow  type;  —  standing  very 
low  in  Wilhelmina's  judgment ;  and  ill-seen,  when  not  avoid 
able  altogether,  by  the  Queen's  Majesty.  "  The  man  was  a 
lX)or  Country  Bailiff's  {AnUnuinii's,  kind  of  Tax-manager's) 
son :  from  Auditor  of  a  regiment,"  Papa's  own  regiment,  "  ho 
had  risen  to  In?  Director  of  Finance,  and  a  Minister  of  State. 
His  soul  was  as  low  as  his  birth;  it  was  an  assemblage  of  all 

'  Mauvillon  ("  Elder   Mauvillon,"  Anonymous),  Ilistoire  de  Frediric   GuiU 

Illume  /.,  p-or  M.  de  M (.Vinsterdam  et  Leipzig,  1741),  i.  47.     A  vague 

flimsy  compilation  :  — gives  abundant  "  State-Papers  "  (to  such  as  want  them), 
and  ecliiK's  of  old  Newspaper  rumor.     Very  copious  on  Creutz. 

2  4th  May,  1713  :  Trcuss,  i.  349  n. 


CiiAr.  VI.  THE   LITTLE    DKUMMEli.  359 

1715. 

the  vices,"  ^  says  Willitluiiini,  iii  the  language  of  exaggeration. 

—  Let  him  stand  by  his  budgets;  keep  well  out  of  Wilhel- 

mina's  and  the  Queen's  way  ;  — and  very  especially  bewai-e  of 

coming  on  Giumkow's  field  again. 


CILVrTER    VL 

TlIK    I.ITTLK    DKIMMER. 

Tins  Siege  of  Stralsund,  the  last  military  scene  of  Charles 
XIL.  and  the  first  ever  practically  heard  of  by  our  little  Fritz, 
who  is  now  getting  into  his  fourth  year,  and  must  have  thought 
a  great  deal  about  it  in  his  little  head,  —  Papa  and  even  Mamma 
being  absent  on  it,  and  such  a  marching  and  rumoring  going  on 
all  round  him,  —  proved  to  be  otherwise  of  some  importance 
to  little  Fritz. 

Most  of  his  Tutors  were  picked  up  by  the  careful  Fapa  in 
this  Stralsund  business.  Duhan  de  Jandun,  a  young  French 
gentleman,  family-tutor  to  General  Count  Dohna  (a  cousin  of 
our  Minister  Dohna'sX  but  fonder  of  fighting  than  of  teaching 
grammar;  whom  Friedrii-h  Wilhelm  found  doing  soldier's  work 
in  the  trenches,  and  liked  the  ways  of ;  he,  as  the  foundation- 
stone  of  tutorage,  is  to  be  first  mentioned.  And  then  Count 
Fink  von  Finkenstein,  a  distinguished  veteran,  high  in  com- 
mand (of  whose  qualities  as  Head-Tutor,  or  occasional  travel- 
ling guardian  Friedrich  Wilhelm  had  experience  in  his  own 
young  days  ^) ;  and  Lieutenant-Colonel  Kalkstein,  a  prisoner- 
of-war  from  the  Swedish  side,  whom  Friedrich  Wilhelm,  judg- 
ing well  of  him,  adopts  into  his  own  service  with  this  view  : 
these  three  come  all  from  Stralsund  Siege  ;  and  were  of  vital 
moment  to  our  little  Fritz  in  the  subsequent  time.     Colonel 

1  Wilhelniina,  i.  16. 

2  Bioqrajthisches  Lexihon  aller  Helden  und  Militairpersonen,  welche  sich  in 
Preussischen  Diensten  beruniht  pemacht  haben  (4  vols.  Berlin,  1788),  i.  418, 
§  Finkeustein. — A  praiseworthy,  modest,  highly  correct  Book,  of  its  kind; 
which  we  shall,  in  future,  call  MiUtatr-Lexikon,  when  referring  to  it. 


300  ins  APPRENTICESHIP,   FIKST  .STAGE.     Book  iv. 

171  J- J  ?:.':(. 

Seckendui'f,  agaiu,  who  hud  a  eummuiid  in  tlu'  i'uur  thou.suiid 
Saxons  here,  and  refreshed  into  intimacy  a  transient  okl  ac- 
qiuiiiitancc  witli  Fricdrich  Wilhehn,  —  is  not  he  too  of  terrible 
inijiurtauoe  to  Kiit/.  and  liiin  ?     As  we  shall  see  in  time  !  — 

For  tlie  rest,  here  is  another  little  incident.  "We  said  it  had 
iH'en  a  disajjpointment  to  Papa  that  his  little  Fritz  showed 
almost  no  ajjpetite  for  soldiering,  but  found  other  sights  more 
interesting  to  him  than  the  drill-groimd.  .Sympathizi*,  then, 
with  the  eiu-nest  Papa,  ;is  he  returns  home  one  afternoon, — 
date  not  given,  l)ut  to  all  appearance  of  that  year  ITl."),  when 
there  was  such  wur-rumoring,  and  marching  tow.tnls  Stral- 
sund  ; — and  found  the  little  Fritz,  with  Wilhelmina  looking 
over  him,  strutting  about,  and  assiduously  beating  a  little 
drum. 

The  paternal  heart  ran  over  with  glad  fondness,  invoking 
Heaven  to  confirm  the  omen.  Mother  was  told  of  it ;  the 
jdienomonon  was  talked  of.  —  Ik'uutifulest,  hoiM'fulest  of  little 
drummers.  Painter  Pesne,  a  French  Immigrant,  or  Importee, 
of  the  last  reign,  a  man  of  great  skill  with  his  brush,  whom 
History  yet  thauks  on  several  occasions,  was  sent  for ;  or  he 
heai'd  of  the  incident,  and  volunteered  his  services.  A  Portrait 
of  little  Fritz  drumming,  with  Wilhelmina  looking  on ;  to 
which,  probably  for  the  s;ike  of  color  and  pictorial  effect,  a 
Blackamoor,  a.>ide  with  p.ira.sol  in  hand,  grinning  approbation, 
lias  been  added,  —  was  sket*hed,  and  dext*'rously  worked  out 
in  oil,  by  Painter  Pisne.  Picture  approved  by  mankind  there 
and  then.  And  it  still  hangs  on  the  wall,  in  a  perfect  state,  in 
Charlottenburg  Palace ;  where  the  judicious  t^nirist  may  see  it 
without  difficulty,  and  institute  reflections  on  it. 

A  really  graceful  little  Picture ;  and  certainly,  to  Prussian 
men,  not  without  weight  of  meaning.  Nor  perhaps  to  Picture- 
Collectors  and  Cognoscenti  general h',  of  whatever  country, — 
if  they  could  forget,  for  a  moment,  the  correggiosity  of  Correg- 
gio,  and  the  learned  babble  of  the  Sale-room  and  varnishing 
Auctioneer ;  and  think,  "  Why  it  is,  probably,  that  Pictures 
exist  in  this  world,  and  to  what  end  the  divine  art  of  Painting 
was  bestowed,  by  the  earnest  gods,  upon  poor  mankind  ?  "     I 


CiiA.'.  VI.  THE   LllTLE    DRUMMER.  3G1 

1715. 

could  advise  it,  once,  for  a  little  !  Flaying  of  Saint  Dartholo- 
mew,  Rape  of  Europa,  Rape  of  the  Sabines,  Piping  and  Aniour.s 
of  goat-footed  Pan,  Romulus  suckled  by  the  Wolf  :  all  this, 
and  much  else  of  fabulous,  distant,  unimportant,  not  to  say 
impossible,  ugly  and  unvvortiiy,  shall  pass  without  undue 
severity  of  criticism,  in  a  Household  of  such  opulence  as  ours, 
where  much  goes  to  waste,  and  where  things  are  not  on  an 
earnest  footing  for  this  long  while  past !  As  Created  Objects, 
or  as  Phantasms  of  such,  pietorially  done,  all  this  shall  have 
much  worth,  or  shall  have  little.  Put  I  say.  Here  withal  is 
one  not  phantasmal ;  of  indisputable  certainty,  home-gx*own, 
just  commencing  business,  who  carried  it  far ! 

Fritz  is  still,  if  not  in  '*  long-clothes,"  at  least  in  longisli 
and  flowing  clothes,  of  the  petticoat  sort,  which  look  as  of 
dark-blue  velvet,  very  simple,  pretty  and  approi)riate ;  in  a 
cap  of  the  same ;  has  a  short  raven's  featlier  in  the  cap ; 
and  looks  up,  with  a  face  and  eyes  full  of  beautiful  vivacity 
and  child's  enthusiasm,  one  of  the  beautifulest  little  figures, 
while  the  little  drum  responds  to  his  bits  of  drumsticks. 
Sister  Wilhelmina,  taller  by  some  three  years,  looks  on  in 
pretty  marching  attitmle,  and  with  a  graver  smile.  Blacka- 
moor, and  accompaniments  elegant  enough ;  and  finally  the 
figure  of  a  grenadier,  on  guard,  seen  far  off  through  an  open- 
ing, —  make  up  the  background. 

We  have  engravings  of  this  Picture ;  which  are  of  clumsy 
poor  quality,  and  misrepresent  it  much  :  an  excellent  Copy 
in  oil,  what  might  be  called  almost  a  fac-simile  and  the  per- 
fection of  a  Copy,  is  now  (1854)  in  Lord  Ashburton's  Col- 
lection here  in  England.  In  the  Berlin  Galleries,  —  which 
are  made  up,  like  other  Galleries,  of  goat-footed  Pan,  Europa's 
Bull,  Romulus's  She- Wolf,  and  the  correggiosity  of  Correggio ; 
and  contain,  for  instance,  no  Portrait  of  Frederick  the  Great ; 
no  Likenesses  at  all,  or  next  to  none  at  all,  of  the  noble  series 
of  Human  Realities,  or  of  any  part  of  them,  who  have  sprung 
not  from  the  idle  brains  of  dreaming  Dilettanti,  but  from 
the  Head  of  God  Almighty,  to  make  this  poor  authentic 
Earth  a  little  memorable  for  us,  and  to  do  a  little  work 
that  may   be    eternal  there:  —  in   those    expensive    Halls    of 


3G2  HIS  APPKEXTICESHIP,   FIUbT  STAGE.      B.h,k  iv. 

17ia-172.J. 

''High  All"'  at  licrlin,  there  wcn^  to  my  exiierionce,  few 
Pictures  more  agreeable  than  this  of  Pesue's.  Wek'ome,  like 
one  tiny  islet  of  Reality  amid  the  shoreless  sea  of  I'huntasms, 
to  the  reflective  mind,  seriously  loving  and  seeking  what 
is  worthy  and  memorable,  seriously  hating  and  avoiding  wliat 
is  the  reverse,  and  intent  not  to  play  the  dilettante  in  tliis 
world. 

The  same  Pesne,  an  excellent  Artist,  has  painted  Fried- 
rich  as  Prince-Royal :  a  beautiful  young  man  with  moiat-look- 
ing  enthusiastic  eyes  of  extraordinary  brilliancy,  smooth  oval 
face ;  consideral»ly  reseml)ling  his  Mother.  After  which 
period,  authentic  I'ictures  of  Frieilrich  aie  sought  for  to  lit- 
tle purpose.  For  it  seems  he  never  sat  to  any  Painter,  in 
his  reigning  days;  and  the  Prussian  Chodowiecki,*  Saxou 
Graff,  Englisii  Cunningham  had  to  pick  up  his  physiognomy 
from  the  distance,  intermittently,  as  they  could.  Nor  is 
Ranch's  grand  equestrian  Sculpture  a  thing  to  be  Indieved, 
or  perhaps  pretending  nuich  to  be  so.  The  commonly  received 
Portrait  of  Friedrieh,  which  all  German  limners  can  draw  at 
once,  —  the  cocked-hat,  big  eyes  and  alert  air,  reminding  you 
of  some  unconnnonly  brisk  Invalid  Drill-sergeant  or  Green- 
wich Pensioner,  as  much  as  of  a  Royal  Hero,  —  is  nothing  but 
a  general  extract  and  average  of  all  the  faces  of  Friedrieh, 
such  as  has  been  taeitly  agreed  upon  ;  and  is  dehnahle  as  a 
received  pictorial-myth,  by  no  means  as  a  fact,  or  credible  re- 
sen;blance  of  life. 

But  enough  now  of  Pictures.  This  of  the  Little  Drummer, 
the  painting  and  the  thing  painted  which  remain  to  us,  may 
be  taken  as  Friedrich's  first  api)earance  on  the  stage  of  the 
world ;  and  welcomed  accordingly.  It  is  one  of  the  very  few 
visualities  or  definite  certiiinties  we  can  lay  hold  of,  in  those 
young  years  of  his,  and  bring  conclusively  home  to  our  imagi- 
nation, out  of  the  waste  Prussian  dust-clouds  of  uninstructive 
garrulity  which  pretend  to  record  them  for  us.  Whether  it 
came  into  existence  as  a  shadowy  emanation  from  the  Stral- 
sund  Exi)edition,  can  only  be  matter  of  conjecture.     To  judge 

*  Pronounce  Kodoi'-tfftshi ;  —  .and  cnile.avor  to  mako  f»onie  acquaintance 
with  this  "  Prussian  Hogarth,"  who  has  real  worth  and  originality. 


CiiAi-.  VI.  THE   LITTLE   DRUMMER.  3G3 

1716. 

by  size,  these  figures  must  luive  been  painted  about  the  year 
1715;  Fritz  some  three  or  four  years  old,  liis  sister  Wilhelmina 
seven. 

It  remains  only  to  be  intimated,  that  Friedrich  Wilhelm, 
for  his  part,  had  got  all  he  claimed  from  this  Expedition : 
namely,  Stettin  with  the  dependent  Towns,  and  quietness 
in  I'ommern.  Stettin  was,  from  of  old,  the  capital  of  his 
own  part  of  Pommern ;  thrown  in  along  with  the  other  parts 
of  Pommern,  and  given  to  Sweden  (from  sheer  necessity, 
it  was  avowed),  at  the  Peace  of  Westphalia,  sixty  years  ago 
or  more  :  —  and  now,  by  good  chance,  it  has  come  back.  Wait 
another  hundred  years,  and  perhaps  Swedish  Pommern  alto- 
gether will  come  back  !  But  from  all  this  Friedrich  Wilhelm 
is  still  far.  Stettin  and  quiet  are  all  he  dreams  of  demanding 
there. 

Stralsund  he  did  not  reckon  his  ;  left  it  with  the  Danes,  to 
hold  in  i>awn  till  some  general  Treaty.  Nor  was  there  farther 
outbreak  of  war  in  those  regions  ;  though  actual  Treaty  of 
Peace  did  not  come  till  1720,  and  make  matters  sure.  It  was 
the  new  Queen  of  Sweden,  Ulrique  Eleonora  (Charles's  younger 
Sister,  wedded  to  the  young  Laudgraf  of  Hessen-Cassel),  — 
much  aided  l)v  an  English  Envoy,  —  who  made  this  Peace  with 
Friedrich  Wilhelm.  A  young  English  Envoy,  called  Lord 
Carteret,  was  very  helpful  in  this  matter ;  one  of  his  first  feats 
in  the  diplomatic  world.  For  which  Peace,^  Friedrich  Wilhelm 
was  so  thankful,  good  pacific  armed-man,  that  happening  to 
have  a  Daughter  born  to  him  just  about  that  time,  he  gave  the 
little  creature  her  Swedish  Majesty's  name  ;  a  new  "  Ulrique," 
who  grew  to  proper  stature,  and  became  notable  in  Sweden, 
herself,  by  and  by.* 

'  Stockholm,  21st  January,  1720:  m  MaaviUon  (i.  380-417)  the  Document 
itself  at  large. 

^  Louisa  Ulrique,  born  24th  July,  1 720  ;  Queen  of  Sweden  in  time  coming. 


364  Ills  Al'l'KENTlCKSllir,   Fli:.si    STAUi:.      15<»>K  IV. 

l7ia-17!W. 


("IIAriKK    \II. 


TRANSIT    UK    CZAK    I'KTEK. 


Tv  the  AutuiuTi  of  1717,  IVUt  the  (Jroat,  cominij  home 
from  his  celebrated  French  journey,  jmid  Friedricli  Willudm 
a  visit;  and  passed  four  days  at  Berlin.  ( )f  wliiili  let  us  give 
one  glimpse,  if  we  can  with  brevity. 

Friedrieh  Willielm  and  the  Czar,  like  in  several  points, 
though  so  dissimilar  in  others,  ha<l  always  a  certain  regard 
for  one  another;  and  at  this  time,  they  had  l)een  brought 
into  closer  intercourse  by  their  common  j)eril  from  Charles 
XII.,  ever  since  that  Stralsund  business.  The  peril  was  real, 
es|)ecially  with  a  Giirtz  and  Allx-roni  putting  hand  to  it ;  and 
the  alarm,  the  rumor,  an<l  uncertiiuty  were  great  in  tliose 
years.  The  wounded  Lion  driven  indignant  into  his  lair, 
with  Plotting  Artists  now  oi>erating  \i\h)n  the  rage  of  the 
noble  animal :  who  knows  what  sjjring  he  will  next  take  ? 

George  I.  had  a  licet  cruising  in  the  Baltic  Sounds,  and 
again  a  fleet;  —  paying,  in  that  oblique  way,  for  Bremen  and 
Verden ;  which  were  got,  otherwise,  such  a  bargain  to  his 
Hanover.  Czjir  Peter  had  marched  an  Army  into  Denmark  ; 
united  Itussians  and  Danes  count  fifty  thousand  there  ;  for 
a  conjunct  invasion,  and  probable  destruction,  of  Sweden  : 
but  that  came  to  nothing ;  Charles  looking  across  upon  it  too 
dangerously,  **  visible  in  clear  weather  over  from  the  Dani.sli 
side."  *  So  Peter's  troops  have  gone  home  again ;  Denmark 
too  glad  to  get  them  away.  Perhaps  they  would  have  stayed 
in  Denmark  altogether;  much  liking  the  green  pastures  and 
convenient  situation,  —  had  not  Admiral  Norris  with  his  can- 
non been  there !  l*erhaps  ?  And  the  Pretender  is  coming 
again,  they  say  ?  ^Vnd  who  knows  what  is  coming  ?  —  How 
Giirtz,  in  about  a  year  hence  was  laid  hold  of,  and  let  go,  and 
'  1716  :  Fas:!niann,  p.  171. 


CiiAi-.  Ml.  TliAN.Sl'i    UF   CZAK   TETKli.  365 

1717. 

then  ukiniately  tiiud  iiml  belietuled  (once  his  lion  blaster  was 
disposed  of) ;  ^  liow,  Ambassador  Otdlamare,  and  the  Spanish 
part  of  the  Plot,  having  been  discovereil  in  I'aris,  Cardinal 
Alberoni  at  Madrid  was  discovered,  and  the  whole  mystery 
laid  bare ;  all  that  mad  business,  of  bringing  the  Pretender 
into  En,i,dand,  throwing  out  George  I.,  throwing  out  the 
Kegent  d'Orleans,  and  much  more,  —  is  now  sunk  silent 
enough,  not  worthy  of  reawakening ;  but  it  was  then  a  most 
Innd  matter;  tilling  the  Euroi)ean  Courts,  and  especially  that 
of  fierlin,  with  rumors  and  api)rehensions.  No  wonder  Prie<l- 
rich  Wilhelm  was  grateful  for  that  Swedish  Peace  of  his, 
and  nametl  his  little  daughter  **Ulri(jue"  in  honor  of  it. 
Tumultuous  cloud-world  of  Lapland  Witchcraft  luul  ceased 
hereby,  and  daylight  had  lM?gun  :  old  w(»nu'n  (or  old  Cardinals) 
riding  through  the  sky,  on  broomsticks,  to  meet  Satan,  where 
now  are  they  ?  The  fact  still  dimly  perceptible  is,  Europe, 
thanks  to  that  pair  of  Black-Artists,  Giirtz  anil  Alberoni,  not 
to  mention  Law  the  Finance-Wizard  and  his  French  incanta- 
tions, had  been  kept  generally,  ft»r  these  three  or  four  years 
past,  in  the  state  of  a  Haunted  House;  riotous  Goblins,  of 
unknown  dire  intent,  walking  now  in  this  apartment  of  it, 
now  in  that ;  no  rest  anywhere  for  the  perturbed  inhabi- 
tants. 

As  to  Friedrich  "Wilhelm,  his  plan  in  1717,  as  all  along,  in 
this  bewitched  state  of  matters,  was:  To  fortify  his  Frontier 
Towns ;  Memel,  Wesel,  to  the  right  and  left,  especially  to 
fortify  Stettin,  his  new  acquisition  ;  —  and  to  put  his  Army, 
and  his  Treasury  (or  \nny-Chest),  more  and  more  in  order. 
In  that  way  we  shall  better  meet  whatever  goblins  there  may 
be,  thinks  Friedrich  Wilhelm.  Count  Lottum,  hero  of  the 
Prussians  at  Malplaquet,  is  doing  his  scientific  uttermost  in 
Stettin  and  those  Frontier  Towns.  For  the  rest,  his  Majesty, 
invited  by  the  Czar  and  France,  has  been  found  willing  to 
make  paction  with  them,  as  he  is  with  all  pacific  neighbors. 
In  fact,  the  Czar  and  he  had  their  private  Conference,  at 
Havelberg,   last  year,  —  Havelberg,   some   sixty   miles   from 

J  19th  March,  1719:  see  Kohler  {MiiiizMnstlgungen,  \-i.  233-240,  xvii.  297- 
304)  for  many  curious  details  of  Gurtz  and  his  eud. 


3G6  ills  Al'l-KKNTUESllIl',   FIRST  STAGE.      Bo^k  IV. 

1713-1723. 

lifilin,  on  the  road  towards  Demnark,  as  P«*ter  \v;is  j^issing 
tiiat  way  ;  —  ample  Conference  of  five  days ;  *  —  privately 
agreeing  there,  about  many  points  conducive  to  tranquillity. 

And  it  was  on  that  same  errand,  though  ostensibly  to  look 
after  Art  and  the  higher  forms  of  Civilization  so  called,  that 
Peter  had  been  to  France  on  this  celebrated  occasion  of  1717. 
We  know  lie  saw  much  Art  withal ;  saw  Marly,  Trianon  and 
the  grandeurs  and  politenesses ;  —  saw,  among  other  things, 
"a  Medal  of  himself  fall  accidentally  at  his  feet;"  polite 
Medal  "just  getting  struck  in  the  Mint,  with  a  rising  sun  on 
it,  and  the  motto,  \iuk»  Acguiiux  kundo.'"  Ostensibly  it 
was  to  see  cette  belle  France;  but  privately  withal  the  Czar 
wishi^d  to  make  his  bargain,  with  the  Regent  d'(  >rleans,  as  to 
these  goblins  walking  in  the  Northern  and  Southern  parts, 
and  what  was  to  be  done  with  them.  And  Ihe  result  has 
been,  the  Czar,  Friedrich  Wilhelm  and  the  said  Kegent  liave 
just  concluded  an  Agreement ; '  undt>rtaking  in  general,  that 
the  goblins  shall  be  well  watched  ;  that  they  Three  will  stand 
by  one  another  in  watching  them.  And  now  the  Czar  will 
visit  Berlin  in  passing  homewards  agiiin.  That  is  the  posi- 
tion of  affairs,  when  he  pays  this  visit.  Peter  had  been  in 
Beiliu  more  than  once  before ;  but  almost  always  in  a  suc- 
cinct rapid  condition;  never  with  his  ''Court"  about  him  till 
now.  This  is  his  last,  and  by  far  his  greatest,  apijearauce  in 
Berlin. 

Such  a  transit,  of  the  Barbaric  semi-fabulous  Sovereignties, 
could  not  but  l)e  wonderful  t<»  everybody  there.  It  evidently 
struck  Wilhelmina's  fancy,  now  in  her  ninth  year,  very  much. 
What  her  little  Brother  did  in  it,  or  thought  of  it,  I  nowhere 
find  hinted ;  conclude  only  that  it  would  remain  in  his  head 
too,  visible  occasionally  to  the  end  of  his  life.  Wilhelmina's 
Narrative,  very  loose,  dateless  or  misdated,  plainly  wrong  in 

1  23d-28th  November,  1716  :  Fassmann,  p.  172. 

'  Voltaire,  (Euvrrs  Completes  {Ilixtoirf  du  Czar  Pierre),  xxxi.  3.16.  —  Koh- 
ler  in  yfunzhfhistlgungcn,  xvii.  3S6-.392  (tlii.-'  very  Medal  the  subject),  givei 
authentic  account,  ilay  by  day,  of  the  Czar'3  visit  there. 

*  4th  August,  1717  :  Buchholz,  i.  43. 


LHAi.  MI.  iKAN;>lT   UF   CZAK   PETER.  367 

1717. 

various  particulars,  has  still  its  value  for  us:  iuunun  cije^, 
even  a  child's,  are  worth  something,  in  comparison  to  liuman 
waut-of-eyes,  which  is  too  frequent  in  History-books  and  else- 
where !  —  Czar  Peter  is  now  forty -five,  his  Czarina  Catherine 
about  thirty-one.  It  was  in  1698  that  he  first  passed  this 
way,  going  towards  Saardam  and  practical  ShijvVmilding : 
within  which  twenty  years  what  a  spell  of  work  done  !  Vic- 
tory of  Pultawa  is  eight  years  behind  him ;  ^  victories  in  many 
kinds  are  behind  him  :  by  this  time  he  is  to  be  reckoned  a 
triuyiphant  Czar ;  and  is  certainly  the  strangest  mixture  of 
heroic  virtue  and  brutish  Samoeidic  savagery  the  world  at  any 
time  had. 

It  was  Sunday,  19th  September,  1717,  when  the  Czar  arrived 
in  Perlin.  Being  alreiuly  sated  with  scenic  parades,  he  had 
beggetl  to  be  spared  all  ceremony ;  l)egged  to  be  lodged  in 
Monbijou,  the  Queen's  little  Garden-Palace  with  river  and 
trees  round  it,  where  he  hoped  to  be  quietest.  Monbijou 
hatj  been  set  apart  accordingly  ;  the  Queen,  not  in  the  benign- 
est  humor,  sweeping  all  her  crystals  and  brittle  things  away  ; 
knowing  the  manners  of  the  Muscovites.  Nor  in  the  way 
of  ceremony  was  there  much:  King  and  Queen  drove  out  to 
meet  him  ;  rampart-guns  gave  three  big  salvos,  as  the  Czar- 
ish  Majesty  stept  foi'th.  "  I  am  glad  to  see  you,  my  Brother 
Friedrich,"  said  Peter,  in  German,  his  only  intelligible  lan- 
guage ;  shaking  hands  with  the  Brother  Majesty,  in  a  cordial 
human  manner.  The  Queen  he,  still  naore  cordially,  "  would 
have  kissed;"  but  this  she  evaded,  in  some  graceful  effec- 
tive way.  As  to  the  Czarina,  —  who,  for  obstetric  and  other 
reasons,  of  no  moment  to  us,  had  stayed  in  Wesel  all  the 
time  he  was  in  France,  —  she  followed  him  now  at  two 
days'  distance;  not  along  with  him,  as  Wilhelinina  has  it. 
^Vilhelmina  says,  she  kissed  the  Queen's  hand,  and  again 
and  again  kissed  it ;  begged  to  present  her  Ladies,  — "  about 
four  hundred  so-called  Ladies,  who  were  of  her  Suite."  — 
Surely  not  so  many  as  four  hundred,  you  too  witty  Prin- 
cess ?  "Mere  German  serving-maids  for  the  most  part,"  says 
the  witty  Princess;  "Ladies  when  there  is  occasion,  then 
1  27th  June,  1709. 


308  HIS    AI'l'l:h.M  ICKSlllI'     FIWST   STACi;.      II.H.K  IV. 

171.,-172;J. 

acting  as  chamlx^niiaids,  cooks,  washerwomt'ii,  when  that  is 
over," 

Queen  Sophie  was  averse  to  sahite  tliese  creatures;  hut  the 
Czarina  C'atlieriiie  niakiiig  reprisals  upon  our  Margravines, 
and  the  King  h)oking  painfully  earnest  in  it,  she  prevailed 
upon  herself.  Was  there  ever  seen  such  a  trav«'lling  tiigrag- 
gery  of  a  Sovereign  Court  before  ?  "  Several  of  these  crea- 
tures [])re^que  toutcs,  says  the  exaggerative  Princess]  liad,  in 
their  arms,  a  bahy  in  rich  dress  ;  and  if  you  asked,  *  Is  that 
yours,  then'/'  they  answen-d,  making  sahuiins  in  llussian 
style,  'The  Czar  did  nie  the  honor  {vi<t  f>il(  rhnmifur  dr  me 
f'llro  cct  en  flint)  I ' ''  — 

Which  statement,  if  we  dediict  the  due  2o  per  cent,  is  prol>- 
ably  not  mythic,  after  all.  A  day  or  two  ago,  the  Czar  had 
Ikh'u  at  Magdeburg,  on  his  way  hither,  intent  upon  insjjecting 
matters  there;  and  the  (►Hieial  (lentlemen, —  I'resident  Coc- 
ceji  (afterwards  a  very  celebrated  man)  at  the  liead  of  them, — 
waited  (»n  the  Czar,  to  do  what  was  needful.  On  entering, 
with  the  proper  Address  or  complimentary  Harangue,  they 
found  his  Czarish  Majesty  "standing  l)etween  two  Russian 
Ladies,"  clearly  Ladies  of  the  alK)ve  sort;  for  they  stood 
close  by  him,  one  of  his  arms  was  round  the  neck  of  each, 
and  his  hands  amused  themselves  by  taking  lil)ei-tics  in  that 
posture,  all  the  time  Cocceji  spoke.  Nay,  even  this  wius  as 
nothing  among  the  Magdeburg  phenem«*na.  Next  day,  fop 
instance,  there  apj)eared  in  the  audience-chamlH-r  a  certain 
Serene  high-j)acing  Duke  of  ^lecklenburg,  with  his  Duchess  ; 
—  thrice-unfortunate  Duke,  of  whom  we  shall  too  often  heai 
again;  who,  after  some  adventures,  ujider  Charles  XIL  tirst 
of  all,  and  then  under  the  enemies  of  Charles,  ha<l,  about  a 
year  ago,  after  divorcing  his  first  Wife,  married  a  Niece  of 
I'eter's:  —  Duke  and  Duchess  arrive  now,  by  order  or  gra- 
cious invitation  of  their  Sovereign  Uncle,  to  accompany  him 
in.  those  parts ;  and  are  announced  to  an  eager  Czar,  giving 
audience  to  his  select  Magdeburg  ]tublic.  At  sight  of  which 
most  desirable  IXichess  and  Brother's  Daughter,  how  Peter 
started  up,  satyr-like,  clasping  her  in  his  arms,  and  snatching 
her  into  an  inner  room,  with  the  door  left  ajar,  ami  there  — • 


Chm:  VII.  TRANSIT    UF   CZAK    PETKK.  369 

1717. 

It  is  too  Samoeidic  for  human  speecli  I  and  would  exccd  belief, 
were  not  the  testimony  so  strong.*  A  Duke  of  Mecklenburg, 
it  would  appear,  who  may  count  himself  the  Nun-pl as-ultra  of 
huslxmds  in  that  epoch  ;  — as  among  Sovereign  Rulers,  too,  in 
a  small  or  great  way,  he  seeks  his  fellow  for  ill-luck ! 

Duke  and  Duchess  accompanied  the  Czar  to  Berlin,  where 
Wilhelmina  mentions  them,  as  presentees ;  part  of  those 
*'  four  hundretl  "  anomalies.  They  took  the  Czar  home  with 
them  to  ^Mecklenburg :  where  indeed  some  Russian  Regiments 
of  'his,  left  here  on  their  return  from  Denmark,  had  been 
very  useful  in  coercing  the  rebellious  Ritterschaft  (Knightage, 
or  Landed-Grentry)  of  this  Duke,  —  till  at  length  the  general 
outcry,  and  voice  of  the  Reich  itself,  had  ordered  the  said 
Regiments  to  get  on  march  again,  and  take  themselves  away.' 
For  all  is  rebellion,  passive  rebellion,  in  Mecklenburg;  taxes 
being  so  indispensable  ;  and  the  Knights  so  disinclined ;  and 
this  Duke  a  Sovereign,  —  such  as  we  may  construe  fi-om  his 
(piarrelling  with  almost  everybody,  and  his  not  quarrelling 
with  an  Uncle  I'eter  of  that  kind.^  His  troubles  as  Sover- 
eign Duke,  his  flights  to  Dantzig,  oustings,  returns,  law- 
pleadings  and  foolish  confusions,  lasted  all  his  life,  thirty 
years  to  come ;  and  were  bequeathed  as  a  sorrowful  legacy 
to  Posterity  and  ths  neighboring  Countries.  Voltaire  says, 
the  Czar  wished  to  buy  his  Duchy  from  him.*  And  truly, 
for  this  wretched  Duke,  it  would  have  been  good  to  sell  it  at 
any  price :  but  there  were  other  words  than  his  to  such  a 
bargain,  had  it  ever  been  seriously  meditated.  By  this  ex- 
traordinaiy  Duchess  he  becomes  Father  (real  or  putative)  of 
a  certain  Princess,  whom  we  may  hear  of ;  and  through  her 
again  is  Grandfather  of  an  unfortunat<^  Russian  Prince,  much 
bruited  about,  as  "  the  murdered  Iwan,"  in  subsequent  times. 

1  Pullnitz(.1/e/Ho/rc;i,  ii.  95)  gives  Friedrich  Wahelm  as  voucher,  "who  used 
to  relate  it  as  from  eye-and-ear  witnesses." 

2  The  Inst  of  them,  "  July,  1717  ;  "  two  months  ago.     (Miohaelis,  ii.  418.) 

8  One  poor  hint,  on  his  behalf,  let  us  not  omit :  "  Wife  quitted  him  in  1719, 
and  lived  at  Moscow  afterwards  ! "  (General  Mannstein,  Memoirs  of  Russia, 
London,  1770,  p.  27  n.) 

*  Ulji  supra,  xxxi.  414. 

VOL.   V. 


S'^O  HIS  APPKENTICESHIP,  FIRST  STAUE.      B<»ok  IV. 

171:3-1723. 

A\  ith  such  ;i  Dukt-  ;ui»l  Duchess  let  our  aequaiutauce  be  the 

7)11  ni muni  of  what  necessity  compels. 

"NVilhelmina  goes  by  hearsay  hitherto ;  and,  it  is  to  be  hoped, 
had  heard  nothing  of  these  Magdeburg-Meckh'nburg  phenom- 
ena ;  but  after  the  Czarina's  arrival,  the  little  creature  saw 
with  her  own  eyes  :  — 

*'Next  day,"  that  is,  Wednesday,  liLM,  ''tlie  Czar  and  his 
Spouse  came  to  return  the  Queen's  visit ;  and  I  saw  the  Court 
myself."  Talace  Grand-Apartments;  Queen  advancing  a  due 
length,  even  to  the  outer  guard-room ;  giving  the  Czarina  her 
right  hand,  and  leading  her  into  Ijer  audience-chamber  in  that 
distinguished  manner  :  King  and  Cz;ir  followed  close ;  —  and 
here  it  wa.s  that  Wilhelmina's  jH'rsonal  experiences  began. 
"  The  Czar  at  once  recognized  me,  having  seen  'Uie  before,  five 
years  ago  [March,  ITl.'iJ.  lie  caught  me  in  his  arms ;  fell 
to  kissing  me,  like  to  Hay  the  skin  off  ni}'  face.  I  boxed  his 
ears,  sprawled,  and  struggled  with  all  my  strength  ;  saying  I 
would  not  allow  such  familiarities,  and  that  he  was  dishonor- 
ing me.  lie  lauglu'd  greatly  at  this  idea;  matle  i>eace,  and 
talked  a  long  time  with  me.  I  had  got  my  lesson  :  I  spoke  of 
his  fleet  and  his  conquests;  —  which  charmed  him  so  much, 
that  he  said  more  than  once  to  the  Czarina,  'If  he  could  have 
a  child  like  me,  he  would  willingly  give  one  of  his  Provinces 
in  exchange.'  The  Czarina  also  caressed  me  a  good  deah 
The  Queen  [Mamma]  and  she  placed  th<'mselves  under  the 
dais,  each  in  an  arm-ehair  "  of  pro[)er  dignity ;  "  I  was  at 
the  Queen's  side,  and  the  Princesses  of  the  IJlotxl,''  Margra- 
vines al)ove  spoken  of,  ''were  opposite  to  her,"  —  all  in  a 
standing  ])ostvire,  as  is  proper. 

"  The  Czarina  was  a  little  stumpy  body,  very  brown,  and 
had  neither  air  nor  grace  :  you  needed  only  look  at  her,  to 
guess  her  low  extraction."  It  is  no  secret,  she  had  been  a 
kitchen-wench  in  her  Lithuanian  native  country  ;  afterwards 
a  female  of  the  kind  called  unfortunate,  under  several  figures : 
however,  she  saved  the  Czar  once,  by  her  read^'-wit  and  cour- 
age, from  a  devouring  Turkish  Difficulty,  and  he  made  her 
fortunate  and  a  Czarina,  to  sit  under  the  dais  as  now.     "  With 


omai-.  vh.  transit  of  czar  teter.  371 

1717. 

her  huddle  of  clothes,  she  looked  for  all  the  world  like  a  Ger- 
man Play-actress;  her  dress,  you  would  have  said,  had  been 
bouudit  at  a  second-hand  shoj) ;  all  was  out  of  fashion,  all  was 
loaded  with  silver  and  greasy  dirt.  The  front  of  her  bodice 
she  had  ornamented  with  jewels  in  a  very  singular  pattern  : 
A  double-eagle  in  eml)roidery,  and  the  jdumes  of  it  set  with 
poor  little  diamonds,  of  the  smallest  possible  carat,  and  very 
ill  mounted.  All  along  the  facing  of  her  gown  were  Orders 
and  little  things  of  metal ;  a  dozen  Orders,  and  as  many  Por- 
traits of  saints,  of  relics  and  the  like  ;  so  that  when  she 
walked,  it  was  witli  a  jingling,  as  if  you  heard  a  mule  with 
bells  to  its  harness.""  —  Poor  little  Czarina;  shifty  nutbrown 
fellow-creature,  strangely  chained  about  from  the  bottom  to 
tlie  top  of  this  wnrld  ;  it  is  evident  she  does  not  succeed  at 
l^Mu'cn  Sophie  Dorothee's  Court !  — 

"  The  Czar,  on  the  other  hand,  was  very  tall,  and  might  be 
called  hand.some,"  continues  Wilhelmina:  "his  count'.'nance 
was  beautiful,  but  had  something  of  savage  in  it  which  put 
you  in  fear."  Partly  a  kind  of  ^Milton's-Devil  physiognomy? 
'IMie  Portraits  give  it  rather  so.  Archangel  not  quite  ruined, 
yet  in  sadly  ruinous  condition;  its  heroism  so  bemircd,  —  with 
a  turn  for  strong  drink,  too,  at  times  !  A  physiognomy  to 
make  one  reflect.  "His  dress  was  of  sailor  fiishion,  coat  alto- 
gether plain." 

"  The  Czarina,  who  spoke  German  very  ill  herself,  and  did 
not  understand  well  what  the  Queen  said,  beckoned  to  her 
Fool  to  come  near," — a  poor  female  creature,  who  had  once 
been  a  Princess  Galitzin,  but  having  got  into  mischief,  had 
been  excused  to  the  Czar  by  her  high  relations  as  mad,  and 
saved  from  death  or  Siberia,  into  her  present  strange  harbor  of 
refuge.  With  her  the  Czarina  talked  in  unknown  Euss,  evi- 
dently "  laughing  much  and  loud,"  till  Supper  was  announced. 

"At  table,"  continues  "Wilhelmina,  "the  Czar  placed  himself 
beside  the  Queen.  It  is  understood  this  Prince  was  attempted 
^nth  poison  in  his  youth,  and  that  something  of  it  had  settled 
on  his  nerves  ever  after.  One  thing  is  certain,  there  took 
him  very  often  a  sort  of  convulsion,  like  Tic  or  St.-Vitus, 
which  it  was  beyond  his  power  to  control.     That  happened  at 


372  HIS  APPRENTICESHIP,   FIRST  STAGE.      B"ok  I>. 

table  now.  He  got  into  contortions,  gesticulations ;  anil  as 
the  knife  was  in  his  hand,  and  went  dancing  about  within 
arm's-lengtli  of  the  Queen,  it  frightened  her,  and  she  motioned 
several  times  to  rise.  The  Czar  begged  her  not  to  mind,  for 
he  would  do  her  no  ill ;  at  the  same  time  he  took  her  by  the 
hand,  which  he  grasped  with  such  violence  that  the  Queen 
was  forced  to  shriek  out.  This  set  him  heartily  laughing; 
saying  she  had  not  Iwnes  of  so  hard  a  texture  as  liis  Cathe- 
rine's. SupfH'r  done,  a  grand  Hall  had  lw»en  got  really ;  but 
the  Czar  escapeil  at  once,  and  walked  home  by  himself  to 
Monbijou,  leaving  the  others  to  dance." 

Wilhelmina's  story  of  the  Cabinet  of  Antiques  ;  of  the  In- 
decent little  Statue  there,  and  of  the  orders  Catherine  got  to 
kiss  it,  with  a  "  K»pf  tih  (Head  off,  if  you  won't)  I "  from  the 
bantering  Czar,  whom  she  had  to  obey,  —  is  not  incredible, 
after  what  we  have  seen.  It  seems,  he  begged  this  bit  of 
Antique  Indecency  from  Friedrich  Wilhelm ;  who,  we  may 
fancy,  would  give  him  such  an  article  with  especial  reatliness. 
That  same  day,  fourth  of  the  Visit,  Thursday,  2.*5d  of  the 
month,  the  atigust  Party  went  its  ways  again ;  Friedricli  Wil- 
helm convoying  *':is  far  as  Potsdam;"  Czar  and  Suite  taking 
that  route  towards  Mrcklcnburg,  where  he  still  intends  some 
little  ]>ause  In'fore  proceeding  homeward.  Friedrich  Wilhelm 
took  farewell;  and  never  saw  the  Czar  again. 

It  was  on  this  Journey,  bt\st  part  of  which  is  now  done, 
that  the  famous  Order  bore,  "Do  it  for  six  thou.sand  thalers ; 
won't  allow  you  one  other  penny  {nit  elnen  Pfennig  gebe  mehr 
dazv) ;  but  give  out  to  the  world  that  it  costs  me  thirty  or 
forty  thousand  ! "  Nay,  it  is  on  record  that  the  sum  proved 
abundant,  and  even  superabundant,  near  lialf  of  it  l)eing  left 
as  overplus.*  The  hospitalities  of  lierlin,  Friedrich  Wilhelm 
took  upon  himself,  and  he  has  done  them  as  we  see.  You 
shall  defray  his  Czarish  Majesty,  to  the  last  Prussian  mile- 
stone ;  punctually,  properly,  though  with  thrift ! 

Peter's  riatinnn,   the    Antique    Indecency,    Friedrich   Wil- 
helm did  not  grudge  to  part  with  ;  glad  to  purchase  the  Czar's 
>  Forster.  i.  215. 


("MA1-.  VII.  TRANSIT   OF   CZAR   PETKK.  373 

good-will  by  coin  of  that  kind.  Last  year,  at  Havelberg,  lie 
had  given  the  Czar  an  entire  Cabinet  of  Amber  Articles, 
belonging  to  his  late  Father.  Amber  Cabinet,  in  the  lumj) ; 
and  likewise  such  a  Vacht,  for  shape,  splendor  and  outfit,  as 
probably  Holland  never  launched  before;  —  Yacht  also  belong- 
ing to  his  late  Father,  and  without  value  to  Friedrieh  AVilhelni. 
The  old  King  had  got  it  built  in  Holland,  regardless  of  ex- 
pense, —  £15,000,  they  say,  perhaps  as  good  as  £50,000  now  ; 
—  and  it  lay  at  Potsdam  :  good  for  what  ?  Friedrich  Wilhelm 
sent  it  down  the  Havel,  down  the  Elbe,  silk  sailors  and  all, 
towanls  Hamburg  and  Petersburg,  with  a  great  deal  of  plea- 
sure. For  the  Czar,  and  peace  and  good-will  with  the  Czar,  was 
of  essential  value  to  liim.  Neither,  at  any  rate,  is  the  Czar  a 
man  to  take  gifts  without  return.  Tall  fellows  for  soldiers : 
that  is  always  one  i)rime  object  with  Friedrich  "Wilhelm  ;  for 
already  these  Potsdam  (iuards  of  his  are  getting  ever  more 
gigantic.  Not  less  an  object,  though  less  an  ideal  or  poetic 
one  (as  we  once  defined),  was  this  other,  to  find  buyers  for  the 
Manufactures,  new  and  old,  which  he  was  so  bent  on  encour- 
aging. "  It  is  astonishing,  what  quantities  of  cloth,  of  hard- 
ware, salt,  and  all  kinds  of  manufactured  articles  the  Russians 
buy  from  us,"  say  the  old  Books  ;  —  "  see  how  our  '  Russian 
Company  '  flourishes ! "  In  both  these  objects,  not  to  speak 
of  peace  and  good-will  in  general,  the  Czar  is  our  man. 

Thus,  this  very  Autumn,  there  arrive,  astonished  and  as- 
tonishing, no  fewer  than  a  hundred  and  fifty  human  figures 
(one  half  more  than  were  promised),  probably  from  seven  to 
eight  feet  high ;  the  tallest  the  Czar  could  riddle  out  from  his 
Dominions :  what  a  windfall  to  the  Potsdam  Guard  and  its 
Colonel-King !  And  all  succeeding  Autumns  the  like,  so  long 
as  Friedrich  "Wilhelm  lived  ;  every  Autumn,  out  of  Russia 
a  hundred  of  the  tallest  mortals  living.  Invaluable,  —  to  a 
"  man  of  genius  "  mounted  on  his  hobby  !  One's  ''  stanza " 
can  be  polished  at  this  rate. 

In  return  for  these  Russian  sons  of  Anak,  Friedrich  V\\\- 
helm  grudged  not  to  send  German  smiths,  millwrights,  drill- 
sergeants,  cannoneers,  engineers  ;  having  plenty  of  them.  By 
whom,  a?  Peter  well  calculated,  the  inert  opaque  Russian  mass 


374  HIS  AiM'iii:NTi("i:siiir,  fikst  sTArn:.    r—ktv. 

mi^lit  U'  kimlU'd  into  luminosity  and  vitality  ;  and  drilled  to 
know  the  Art  of  War,  for  one  thins.  Which  followed  accord- 
ini^ly.  And  it  is  ohservahh',  cvit  since,  that  the  Kiissiim  Art 
of  War  lias  a  tincture  of  Gvrmnn  in  it  (soliil  German,  as 
eontra<listinguished  from  unsolid  Revolutionary-French);  and 
liints  to  us  of  Friedrich  Wilhclm  and  the  ( Hd  Dessaucr,  to 
this  hrmr. —  Ermut  now  the  I'.arbaric  siini-fabulous  Sover- 
eignties, till  want«'d  again. 


(•n\rri:i:  viii. 

TlIK    (KOWN'-PKINtK    IS    ITT    To    MIS    srHOOl.i  vr,. 

In  Ilia  seventh  yciir,  young  Friedrich  was  taken  out  of  the 
hands  of  the  women  ;  and  ha4l  Tutors  and  Sul)-Tutors  of 
masculine  gender,  who  h:wl  Ix-en  nominated  for  him  some  time 
ago,  actually  set  to  work  upon  their  function.  These  we  liave 
alre;wly  heard  of;  they  came  from  Stralsund  Siege,  all  the 
])rinci|ial  hanils. 

Duhan  de  .landun,  the  young  French  gentleman  who  had 
escaiH^d  from  grammar-les.sons  to  the  trenches,  he  is  the  prac- 
tical teacher.  Lieutenant-CJeneral  Graf  Fink  von  Finkenstein 
and  Lieutenant-C«don«d  von  Kalkstein,  they  are  Head  Tutor 
{Oiierhofvu'.ister)  and  Sulv-Tutor ;  military  men  both,  who  had 
been  in  many  wars  Ix'sides  Stralsund.  By  these  three  he 
was  assiduously  educated,  subordinate  schoolmasters  work- 
ing under  them  when  needful,  in  such  branches  as  the  pater- 
nal judgment  would  admit ;  the  paternal  object  and  theirs 
being  to  infuse  useful  knowledge,  reject  useless,  and  wind  up 
the  whole  into  a  military  finish.  These  appointments,  made 
at  different  precise  dates,  took  effect,  all  of  them,  in  the  year 
1719. 

Duhan,  independently  of  his  experience  in  the  trenches,  ap- 
pears to  have  Iwen  an  accomplished,  ingenious  and  conscien- 
tious man  ;  who  did  credit  to  Friedrich  Wilhelm's  judgment; 
and  to  wliom   Friedrich   professed  himself  much   indebted  in 


CiiAi".  vm.   CKOWN-PKINC'E  PUT  TO  HIS  SCHOOLING.    375 

171'J. 

after  lite.  Their  progress  in  some  of  the  technical  branches, 
as  we  shall  perceive,  was  indisputably  unsatisfactory.  But  the 
mind  of  the  Hoy  seems  to  have  been  opened  by  this  Duluin, 
to  a  lively,  and  in  some  sort  genial,  perception  of  thini,'S 
'round  liim; — of  the  strange  confusedly  opulent  Universe  he 
hud  got  into  ;  and  of  the  noble  and  supreme  funetion  whieli 
Intelligence  holds  there;  supreme  in  Art  as  in  Nature,  l>eyond 
all  othtr  fiiiK'tions  whatsoever.  Dulian  was  now  turned  of 
thirty:  a  cheerful  amiable  Frenchman  ;  jMior,  though  of  good 
biitli  and  acquirements;  originally  from  Champagne.  Fried- 
rich  loved  him  very  much;  always  considered  him  his  spiritual 
father  ;  and  to  the  end  of  Duhan's  life,  twenty  years  hence, 
w;is  eager  to  do  him  any  good  in  his  power.  Anxious  always 
to  repair,  lor  poor  Didian,  the  great  sorrows  he  came  to  on  his 
account,  as  wi;  shall  S(;ft. 

Of  (Jraf  Fink  von  Finkenstein,  who  has  had  military  ex- 
jx^riences  of  all  kinds  and  all  degrees,  from  nmrching  as 
i)risoner  into  Fran<'e,  "wounded  and  without  his  hat,"  to 
lighting  at  Malj>laquet,  at  Blenheim,  even  at  Steenkirk,  as 
well  as  Stralsund  :  who  is  now  in  his  sixtieth  year,  and  seems 
to  have  been  a  gentleman  of  rather  high  solemn  manners, 
and  indeed  of  unch-niable  jjcrfections,  —  of  this  supreme  Count 
Fink  we  learn  almost  nothing  farther  in  the  Books,  excejit 
that  his  little  I'upil  did  not  dislike  him  either.  The  little 
Pupil  took  not  unkindly  to  Fink;  welcoming  any  benignant 
human  ray,  across  these  lofty  gravities  of  the  Oherhofmeviter ; 
went  often  to  his  house  in  Berlin  ;  and  made  acquaintance 
with  two  young  Finks  about  his  own  age,  whom  he  found 
there,  and  who  became  important  to  him,  especially  the 
younger  of  them,  in  the  course  of  the  future.^  This  Pupil, 
it  may  be  said,  is  creditably  known  for  his  attachment  to  his 
Teaehers  and  others  :  an  attached  and  attaching  little  Boy. 

Of  Kalkstein,  a  rational,  experienced  and  earnest  kind  of 
man,  though  as  yet  but*  young,  it  is  certain  also  that  the 
little  Fritz  loved  him;  and  furthermore  that  the  Great 
Friedrich  was  grateful  to  him,  and  had  a  high  esteem  of  his 

1  Zedlitz-Neukirch,  P;euss/scAes.4rfe&-Z^x/ion  (Lpipzig,  1836),  ii.  168.  MiUr 
tair-Lexikon,  i.  420. 


37G  HIS  ArrUENTICESIIIP,   FIRST  STAGE.      R<»ok  TV. 

1713-172.}. 

integrity  aiul  sense.  "My  master,  Kalkstein,"  used  to  be  his 
designation  of  him,  when  the  name  chanced  to  be  mentioned 
in  after  times.  They  continued  together,  with  various  pas- 
sages of  mutual  history,  for  fi)rty  yeare  afterwards,  till  Kulk- 
stein's  death.  Kalkstein  is  :;t  present  twenty-eight,  the 
youngest  of  the  three  Tutors ;  then,  and  ever  after,  an  alto- 
gether downright  correct  soldier  and  man.  He  is  of  I'reussen, 
or  Prussia  Proper,  this  Kalkstein; — of  the  same  kindred  as 
that  mutinous  Kalkstein,  whom  we  once  lieard  of,  who  was 
"  rolled  in  a  carpet,''  and  kidnapj)ed  out  of  Warsaw,  in  the 
Great  Elector's  time.  Not  a  direct  descendant  of  that  be- 
hejuled  Kalkstein's  but,  as  it  were,  his  nephew  so  many  times 
removed.  Preussen  is  now  far  enough  from  nuitiny  ;  sub>lu.*d, 
with  all  its  Kalksteins,  into  a  respectful  silence,  not  lightly 
using  the  right  even  of  petition,  or  submissive*  remonstrance, 
which  it  may  still  liave.  Nor,  except  on  the  score  of  ])arlia- 
mentiiry  eloquence  and  newspaper  coj)yright,  does  it  appear 
tli.it  Tri'ussfu  lias  suffered  by  tin-  ilcmge. 

How  tlu.se  Fiiik-Kalkstein  liiiu  liuuaries  proceeded  in  the 
great  task  they  J:ad  got,  —  very  great  task,  had  they  known 
what  Pupil  had  fallen  to  them,  —  is  nt)t  directly  recorded  for 
us,  with  any  sequence  or  distinctness.  We  infer  only  that 
evcrj'thinT  went  by  inflexible  routine ;  not  asking  at  all, 
Jr7<rt/ pui)il  ?  —  nor  much.  Whether  it  would  suit  any  pupil  ? 
I>uhan,  with  thr  tendencies  w  have  seen  in  him,  who  is  will- 
ing  to  soften  the  inflexible  when  jwjssible,  and  to  "guide 
Nature"  by  a  rather  loose  rein,  was  probably  a  genial  element 
in  the  otherwise  strict  affair.  Fritz  ha^l  one  unspeakable 
a<lvantage,  rare  among  princes  and  even  among  peasants  in 
these  ruined  ages  :  that  of  not  being  taught,  or  in  general  not, 
by  the  kind  called  "  Hypocrites,  and  even  Sincere-Hypocrite.s," 
—  fatalest  species  of  the  class  Hijporrite.  We  jierceive  he  was 
lessoned,  all  along,  not  by  enchanted  Phantasms  of  that  dan- 
gerous sort,  V>reathing  mendacity  of  mind,  unconsciously,  out 
of  every  look ;  but  l)y  real  Men,  who  believed  from  the  heart 
o\itwards,  and  were  daily  doing  what  they  taught.  To  which 
unspeakable  advantage  we  add  a  second,  likewise  considerable  : 


CiiAr.  VIII.  CROWN'-PRIXCE  PUT  TO  HIS  SCHOOLING.    377 

171'J. 

Thit  lis  masters,  though  rigorous,  were  not  unlovable  to  him-, 
—  that  his  alfections,  at  least,  were  kept  alive ;  that  what- 
ever of  seed  (or  of  chaff  and  hail,  as  was  likelier)  fell  on  his 
mind,  had  sunshiiie  to  help  in  dealing  with  it.  These  are 
two  advantages  still  achievable,  though  with  ditticulty,  in  our 
epoch,  by  an  earnest  father  in  behalf  of  his  poor  little  son. 
And  these  are,  at  present,  nearly  all ;  with  these  well  achieved, 
the  earnest  father  and  his  son  ought  to  be  thankful.  Alas,  in 
matter  of  education,  there  are  no  high-roads  at  present ;  or 
there  are  such  only  as  do  not  lead  to  the  goal.  Fritz,  like  the 
rest  of  us,  had  to  struggle  his  way,  Nature  and  Didactic  Art 
differing  very  much  from  one  another ;  and  to  do  battle,  inces- 
sant partial  battle,  with  his  schoolmasters  for  any  education 
he  had. 

A  very  rough  Document,  giving  Friedrich  Wilhelm's  regu- 
lations on  this  subject,  from  his  own  hand,  has  come  down 
to  us.  Most  dull,  embroiled,  heavy  Document ;  intricate, 
gnarled,  and,  in  fine,  rough  and  stiff  as  natural  bull-headed- 
ness  helped  by  Prussian  pipe-clay  can  make  it; — contains 
some  excellent  hints,  too ;  and  will  show  us  something  of 
Fritzchen  and  of  Friedrich  Wilhelm  both  at  once.  That  is  to 
say,  always,  if  it  can  be  read !  If  by  aid  of  abridging,  eluci- 
dating and  arranging,  we  can  get  the  reader  engaged  to  peruse 
it  patiently;  —  which  seems  doubtful.  The  points  insisted 
on,  in  a  ponderous  but  straggling  confused  manner,  by  his 
didactic  Majesty,  are  chiefly  these  :  — 

1°.  "  Must  impress  ray  Son  with  a  proper  love  and  fear  of 
God,  as  the  foundation  and  sole  pillar  of  our  temporal  and 
eternal  welfare.  No  false  religions,  or  sects  of  Atheist,  Arian 
(Arrian),  Socinian,  or  whatever  name  the  poisonous  things 
have,  which  can  so  easily  corrupt  a  young  mind,  are  to  be 
even  named  in  his  hearing :  on  the  other  hand,  a  proper  ab- 
horrence {Absehen)  of  Papistry,  and  insight  into  its  baseless- 
ness and  nonsensicality  {Ungrioid  und  Absurd  if  cif),  is  to  be 
communicated  to  him  : "  —  Papistry,  which  is  false  enough, 
like  the  others,  but  impossible  to  be  ignored  like  them  ;  men- 
tion that,  and  give   him  due  abhorrence  for  it.     For  we  are 


378  Ills  APPRENTICESHIP,  FIRST  STAGE.     Rwk  IV. 

1713-1723. 

Protestant  to  tho  bone  in  this  country ;  and  cannot  stand 
Absurdltiif,  least  of  all  hypocritically  religious  ditto !  But  the 
grand  thing  will  be,  "To  impress  on  him  the  true  religion, 
wliicli  consists  essentially  in  this,  That  Christ  died  for  all 
men,"  and  generally  that  the  Almighty's  justice  is  eternal  and 
omnipresent, —  "which  consideration  is  tlie  only  means  of 
keeping  a  sovereign  ])erson  {soin<ernine  Maelit),  or  one  freed 
from  human  penalties,  in  the   right  way." 

2".  "lie  is  to  learn  no  Latin;"  observe  tliat,  however  it 
may  surprise  you.  What  h:us  a  living  (i»'rman  man  and  King, 
of  the  eighteenth  Christian  Stmtlitm,  to  do  with  d('a<l  old 
Heathen  Latins,  Romans,  and  the  lingo  tfn'y  sjK)ke  their  fnic- 
tion  of  sense  and  nonsense  in  ?  Frightful,  how  the  young 
years  of  the  European  Generations  have  been  wasted,  for  ten 
centuries  ]>ack;  ;ind  the  Tiiinkers  of  the  world  have  U'come 
mere  walking  Sacks  of  Marine-stores,  "  Gelehrten,  Learned," 
as  they  call  themselves  ;  and  gone  Inst  to  the  world,  in  that 
manner,  as  a  set  of  confiscated  Pedants  ;  —  babl>ling  about 
said  Heathens,  and  //i*?ir  extinct  lingo  and  fraction  of  sense 
and  nonsense,  for  th»'  tliDUsand  years  la.st  pa.st !  Heathen 
Latins,  Romans  ;  —  who  i)erhaps  were  no  great  things  of  Hea- 
then, after  all,  if  well  seen  into?  I  have  lieard  judges  say, 
tliey  were  ///ferior,  in  real  worth  and  grist,  to  German  home- 
growths  we  have  ha<l,  if  the  confiscated  Pedants  could  have 
discerned  it !  At  any  rate,  they  are  dead,  buried  deep,  these 
two  thousand  years;  well  out  of  our  way;  —  and  nonsense 
enough  of  our  own  left,  to  keep  sweeping  into  corners.  Si- 
lence about  their  lingo  and  them,  to  this  new  Crown-Prince ! 
"  Let  the  Prince  learn  French  and  German,"  so  as  to  write 
and  speak,  "with  brevity  and  proi)riety,"  in  these  two  lan- 
guages, which  may  be  useful  to  him  in  life.  That  will  suffice 
for  languages. —  jirovided  he  have  anything  effectually  rational 
to  say  in  them.     For  the  rest, 

3°.  "Let  him  learn  Arithmetic,  Mathematics,  Artillery, — 
Economy  to  the  very  bottom."  And,  in  short,  useful  knowl- 
edge generally  ;  useless  ditto  not  at  all.  "  History  in  particu- 
lar ;  —  Ancient  History  only  slightly  (niir  ii/zerhin)  ;  — but  the 
Historv  of  the  last  hundred  and  fiftv  Years  to  the  exactest 


CiiAi-.  Vlll.  I'KOWN-l'KINCE  ITT  TU  1118  SCHOOLING.  379 
171'J. 

pitfh.  Tlie  Jh^  Saturale  and  Jus  Gentium,"  by  way  of  liaud- 
laiup  to  Jlistory,  "he  iiuist  be  completely  master  of;  as  also 
of  Geography,  whatever  is  remarkable  in  each  Country.  And 
in  Histories,  must  especially  the  History  of  the  house  of 
Branck-nburg  ;  where  he  will  tind  domestic  examjdes,  which 
are  always  of  more  force  than  forei<,Mi.  And  along  with 
Prussian  History,  chiefly  that  of  tht-  Countries  which  have 
beeu  connected  with  it,  as  England,  lirunswick,  Hessen  and 
the  others.  And  in  reading  of  wise  History-books  there  must 
be  considerations  made  (sullen  heyni  Lescn  kluger  JlisturUiruiTt 
Jietrarhtunycn  (jfinacht  wenlcn)  upon  the  causes  of  the  events." 
—  Surely,  ( )  King ! 

4°.  "  With  increasing  years,  you  will  more  and  more,  to  a 
most  especial  tlegree,  go  upon  Fortilicution,"  — mark  you  !  — 
"  the  Formation  of  a  Camp,  and  the  other  Wai-Sciences  ;  that 
the  I'rince  nuxy,  from  youth  upwards,  be  trained  to  act  as 
Otticer  and  General,  and  to  seek  all  his  glory  in  the  soldier 
profession."  This  is  whither  it  must  all  tend.  You,  Finken- 
stein  and  Kalksteiu,  *•  have  both  of  you,  in  the  highest  mea- 
sure, to  make  it  your  cai'e  to  infuse  into  my  Son  \_e'inzupra(ji;n, 
stamp  into  lum]  a  true  love  for  the  Soldier  business,  and  to 
impress  on  him  that,  as  there  is  nothing  in  the  world  which 
can  bring  a  Triuce  renown  and  honor  like  the  sword,  so  he 
would  be  a  despised  creature  before  all  men,  if  he  did  not 
love  it,  and  seek  his  sole  glory  {die  einzige  Gloria)  therein."  ^ 
"Which  is  an  extreme  statement  of  the  case ;  showing  how 
much  we  have  it  at  heart. 

These  are  the  chief  Fi'iedrich-Wilhelm  traits  ;  the  rest  of 
the  document  corresponds  in  general  to  what  the  late  Majesty 
had  written  for  Friedrich  Wilhelm  himself  on  the  like  occa- 
sion.-' Ruthless  contempt  of  Useless  Knowledge  ;  and  passion- 
ate insighf  into  the  distinction  between  Useful  and  Useless, 
especially  into  the  worth  of  Soldiering  as  a  royal  accomplish- 
ment, are  the  chief  peculiarities  here.  In  which  latter  point 
too  Friedrich  Wilhelm,  himself  the  most  pacific  of  men,  unless 

1  Preuss,  i.  11-14  (of  date  13th  August,  1718). 
-  Stenzel,  iii.  572. 


380  HIS   AI'I'IIKNTICKSIIII'.    riKSr   STAlilv      li<-'K  IV. 

I7l;j-l7i3. 

you  pulled  the  whiskers  ol  him,  or  brok<'  into  his  goods  ;iiul 
chattels,  knew  very  well  what  he  was  meaning,  —  mueh  better 
than  we  of  the  "  Tea^e  Society  ' '  and  "  I'hilanthropic  Move- 
ment "  could  imagine  at  first  sight!  It  is  a  thing  he,  for  his 
part,  is  very  deeiiled  upon. 

Already,  a  year  before  this  time,*  there  had  been  instituted, 
for  express  b.'hoi)f  of  little  Fritz,  a  miniature  Soldier  Com- 
pany, above  a  hundred  strong;  which  grew  afterwards  to  be 
near  three  hundred,  and  indcvid  rose  to  be  a  permanent  Insti- 
tution by  degrees;  e.illeil  Konipuf/nle  der  Ki'onprinizUcJwn  Ka- 
dt'ttun  (Company  of  Crown-l'rinee  Cadets).  A  hundred  and 
ten  boys  about  his  own  age,  sons  of  noble  families,  hiid  been 
selected  from  the  three  Military  Schools  then  extant,  as  a 
kinil  of  tiny  reginuMit  for  him  ;  where,  if  he  was  by  no  means 
commander  all  at  once,  he  might  learn  his  exercise  in  fellow- 
ship with  others.  Czar  Peter,  it  is  likely,  took  a  glance  of  this 
tiny  regiment  just  getting  into  rank  and  file  there;  which 
would  remind  the  Czar  of  his  own  young  days.  An  expe- 
rienced Lieutenant-Colonel  was  api)ointed  to  command  in 
chief.  A  cerUiin  handy  :uul  correct  young  fellow,  Kentsol  by 
name,  alwut  seventeen,  who  already  knew  his  fugling  to  a 
hair's-breadth,  was  Drill-master;  and  exercised  them  all,  Fritz 
especially,  with  due  strictness ;  till,  in  the  course  of  timt3 
and  of  attainments,  Fritz  could  himself  take  the  hea<.l  charge. 
"Which  he  did  duly,  in  a  year  or  two :  a  little  sohlior  tlience- 
forth ;  properly  strict,  though  of  small  dimensions  ;  in  tight 
blue  bit  of  coat  and  cocked-hat: — miniature  image  of  Papa 
(it  is  fondly  hoped  and  expected),  resembling  him  as  a  six- 
pence does  a  half-crown.  In  1721  the  assiduous  Papa  set  up 
a  "  little  arsenal  "  for  him,  "  in  the  Orange  Hall  of  the  I'al- 
ace  : "  there  let  him,  with  perhaps  a  chosen  comratle  or  two, 
mount  batteries,  fire  exceedingly  small  brass  ordnance,  —  his 
Engineer-Teacher,  one  Major  von  Senning,  limping  about  (on 
cork  leg),  and  superintending  if  needful. 

Rentzel,  it  is  known,  proved  an  excellent  Drill-sergeant ;  — 
had  g.)od  talents  every  way,  and  was  a  man  of  probity  and 
sense.  He  played  beautifully  on  the  flute  too,  and  had  a 
^  1st  September,  1717  :  Preuss,  i.  13. 


(HA.-.  VMI.   rKoWN-PKINCE  I'L'T  TU  HIS  SC'IIOOLIXG.     381 

1721. 

clii'erl'ul  couvcrsiljk'  turn  ;  wliicli  naturally  roconinicnded  hiiu 
still  lartlu-r  to  Fritz  ;  and  awoke  or  encouraged,  among  other 
laculties,  the  musical  faculty  in  the  little  Boy.  Rentzel  con- 
tinued about  him,  or  in  sight  of  him,  through  life  ;  advancing 
gradually,  not  too  fast,  according  to  real  merit  and  service 
(Colonel  in  1759)  ;  and  never  did  discredit  to  the  choice  Fried- 
rich  Wilhelm  had  mado  of  him.  Of  Senuing,  too,  Engineer- 
Major  von  tSenniug,  who  gave  Fritz  his  lessons  in  Mathemat- 
ics, Fortilication  and  the  kindred  branches,  the  like,  or  better, 
can  be  said.  He  was  of  graver  years ;  had  lost  a  leg  in  the 
Marlborougli  C:imi)aigns,  poor  gentleman ;  but  had  abundant 
sense,  native  worth  and  cheery  rational  tallc,  in  him :  so  that 
he  too  could  never  be  parted  with  by  Friedrich,  but  was  kept 
on  liand  to  the  last,  a  permanent  and  variously  serviceable 
acqiusition. 

Thus,  at  least,  is  the  military  education  of  our  Crown- 
Prince  cared  for.  And  we  are  to  fancy  the  little  fellow,  from 
his  tenth  year  or  earlier,  going  alxnit  in  miniature  soldier 
figure,  for  most  part ;  in  strict  Spartan-Brandenburg  costume, 
of  body  as  of  mind.  Costume  little  flattering  to  liis  own  pri- 
vate taste  for  finery ;  yet  by  no  means  unwholesome  to  him, 
as  he  came  afterwards  to  know.  In  October,  1723,  it  is  on 
record,  when  George  I.  came  to  visit  his  Son-in-law  and 
Daughter  at  Berlin,  his  Britannic  Majesty,  looking  out  from 
his  new  quarters  on  the  morrow,  saw  Fritzchen  "  drilling  his 
Cadet  Ct)mpauy  ;  "  a  very  pretty  little  phenomenon.  Drilling 
with  clear  voice,  military  sharpness,  and  the  precision  of 
clock-work  on  the  Esplanade  {Lustgarten)  there  ;  —  and  doubt- 
less the  Britannic  Majesty  gave  some  grunt  of  acquiescence, 
perhaps  even  a  smile,  rare  on  that  square  heavy-laden  counte- 
nance of  his.  That  is  the  record  :  *  and  truly  it  forms  for  us 
by  far  the  liveliest  little  picture  we  have  got,  from  those  dull 
old  years  of  European  History.  Years  already  sunk,  or  sink- 
ing, into  lonesome  unpeopled  Dusk  for  all  men;  and  fast 
verging  towards  vacant  Oblivion  and  eternal  Night ;  —  which 
(if  some  few  articles  were  once  saved  out  of  them)  is  their 
just  and  inevitable  portion  from  afflicted  human  nature. 
1  Fiirstcr,  i.  215. 


382  ins   Al'PiiENTlCESnil',    FIRST   STA(;i:.       iJ«"'K  IV. 

171«-1723. 

Of  ricling-imistevs,  lencing-nuusters,  s\viiiimiu;;-m  i:>teis  ;  much 
less  of  diiucing-iuivstt'vs,  luusic-iuusU'is  (I'tlebnited  (iriuin,  "  ou 
the  organ,"  with  I'saliu-tuues),  we  cannot  speak ;  but  the 
reader  nuiy  be  satisliiul  tliey  were  all  there,  good  of  their 
kind,  and  pushing  on  at  a  fair  rate.  Nor  is  there  laek  any- 
where of  paternal  supervision  to  our  young  Apprentice.  From 
an  early  age,  Papa  took  the  Orown-Prinw  with  him  on  his 
annual  Reviews.  From  utmost  Memel  on  the  Russian  border, 
down  to  Wesel  on  the  French,  all  Prussia,  m  every  nook  of  it, 
garrison,  marching-regiment,  board  of  management,  is  rigor- 
ously review»>d  by  Majesty  onc^'  a  ye;u-.  There  travels  little 
milifciry  Fritz,  besides  the  miliUiry  Majesty,  amiil  the  generals 
and  olhciid  persons,  in  their  hardy  SparUui  manner;  and  learns 
to  look  into  everything  like  a  lih;ulamiuithine  Argus,  «inil  how 
the  e3'e  of  the  master,  more  tlian  all  other  ajipliances,  fattens 
tlie  cattle. 

On  his  luuits,  too.  Papa  t(Kik  him.  For  Papa  was  a  famous 
hunter,  when  at  Wustcrhauscn  in  the  soiuson  :  —  hot  licagle- 
chase,  hot  Stag-hunt,  your  chief  game  deer ;  liuge  '*  Furcie- 
Ilunt"  (I*ur/onf^I(if/d,  the  woods  all  lx»aten,  and  your  wild 
beasts  tlriven  intt)  straits  and  raudine-forks  for  )ou);  Boar- 
hunting  (Sau/tctze,  "sow-kiiting,"  as  the  Germans  c;dl  it), 
Partridgtstihooting,  Fox-  and  Wolf-hunting; — on  all  grand  ex- 
peditions of  such  sort,  little  Fritz  shall  ride  with  I'apa  luid 
party.  Rough  furious  riding;  now  on  switt  steed,  now  at 
places  on  U'ursticugm, —  ]lui-sttrar/en,  ''Sausage-Car"  so 
called,  most  Sjtartan  of  vehicles,  a  mere  stuif'ed  pole  or  "sau- 
sage ''  with  wheels  t<j  it,  on  which  you  sit  lustride,  a  dozen  or 
so  of  you,  and  career;  —  reg-.u-dless  of  the  summer  heat  and 
sandy  dust,  of  the  winter's  frost-storms  and  mu<ldy  rain.  All 
this  the  little  Crown-Prince  is  bound  to  do  ; — but  likes  it  less 
and  less,  some  of  us  are  sorry  to  observe !  In  fact  he  could 
not  take  to  hunting  at  all,  or  find  the  least  of  permanent  satis- 
faction in  shooting  partridges  and  baiting  sows,  —  "  with  such 
an  expenditure  of  industry  and  such  damage  to  the  seedfields," 
he  would  sometimes  allege  in  extenuation.  In  later  years  he 
has  been  known  to  retire  into  some  glade  of  the  thickets,  and 
hold  a  little  Flute-Hautbois  Concert  with  his  musical  com- 


CHAi-.  VIII.  CRUWN-PKINCE  rUT  TU  lllS  SCllUULlNG.  383 
1721. 

rados,  wliilo  the  sows  were  getting  baited.  Or  he  would  con- 
verse with  Mamma  and  her  Ladies,  if  her  Majesty  chanced  to 
be  there,  in  a  day  for  open  driving.  Wliic-h  things  by  no 
means  increased  his  favor  with  Papa,  a  sworn  hater  of  "effemi- 
nate practices." 

He  was  "  nourished  on  beer-soup,"  as  we  said  before. 
Frugality,  activity,  exactitude  were  lessons  daily  and  hourly 
brouglit  home  to  him,  in  everything  he  did  and  saw.  Ilis 
very  sleep  was  stingily  meted  out  to  him  :  "  Too  much  sleep 
stupefies  a  ftdlow ! "  Friedrich  Willudm  was  wont  to  say ;  — 
80  that  the  very  doctors  had  to  interfere,  in  this  matter,  for 
littli*  Fritz.  Frugal  enough,  hardy  enough  ;  urged  in  every 
way  to  look  with  indifference  on  hardship,  and  take  a  Spartan 
view  of  lite. 

Money-allowance  completely  his  own,  he  does  not  seem 
to  have  had  till  lie  was  st'ventcen.  Exiguous  pocket-money, 
counted  in  ijroschen  (English  pence,  or  hardly  more),  only  his 
Kalkstcin  and  Finkenstein  could  grant  as  they  saw  good; 
—  about  eightccni)ence  in  the  month,  to  start  with,  as  would 
appear.  The  other  small  incidental  moneys,  necessary  for 
his  use,  were  likewise  all  laid  out  under  sanction  of  his 
Tutors,  and  ac^curately  entered  in  Day-books  by  them,  audited 
by  Friedrich  Wilhelm ;  of  which  some  specimens  remain,  and 
one  whole  month,  September,  1719  (the  Boy's  eighth  year), 
has  been  published.  Veiy  singular  to  centemplate,  in  these 
days  of  gold-nuggets  and  ii-rational  man-mountains  fattened 
b}^  mankind  at  such  a  price  !  The  monthly  amount  appears 
to  have  been  some  £3  10s.  :  —  and  has  gone,  all  but  the  eigh- 
teenj^ence  of  sovereign  pocket-money,  for  small  furnishings  and 
very  minute  necessary  luxuries;  —  as  thus:  — 

"  To  putting  his  Highness's  shoes  on  the  last ; "  for  stretch- 
ing them  to  the  little  feet,  —  and  only  one  "  last,"  as  we  per- 
ceive. "  To  twelve  yards  of  Hairtape,"  —  Haarband,  fov  our 
little  queue,  which  becomes  visible  here.  "For  drink-money 
to  the  Postilions."  "  For  the  Housemaids  at  Wusterhausen," 
Don't  I  pay  them  myself  ?  objects  the  auditing  Papa,  at  that 
latter  kind  of  items :  No  more  of  that.  "  For  mending  the 
flute,  four  groschen  [or  pence] ;  "  "  Two  Boxes  of  Colors,  six- 


384  HIS  APPKENTICESIIII',   FIKSl    STAGE.      H-ok  IV. 

lVl:t-17.:a. 

teen  ditto;"'  '*  For  a  live  snipe,  twopence;"  "For  grinding 
the  hanger  [little  swordkin]  ;  "  '•  To  a  l>oy  whom  the  dog  bit ; " 
and  chiefly  of  all,  "  To  the  Kllnfjlicuttl,''  —  Collection-plate,  or 
bag,  at  Church,  —  which  comes  upon  us  once,  nay  twice,  and 
even  thrice  a  week,  eightcenpeuce  each  time,  and  eats  deep 
into  our  straitened  means.* 

On  such  terms  can  a  little  Fritz  br  nourished  into  a  Fried- 
rich  the  Great;  while  irrational  man-mountains,  of  the  beav- 
erish  or  beaverish-vulpine  sort,  tiike  such  a  i)rice  to  fatten 
them  into  monstrosity  I  The  Art-manufat-ture  of  your  Fried- 
rich  can  come  very  cheap,  it  would  appear,  if  once  Nature  have 
done  her  part  in  regard  to  him,  and  there  be  mere  honest  will 
on  the  part  of  the  by-standers.  Thus  Samuel  Johnson,  too, 
cost  next  to  nothing  in  the  way  of  board  and  entert;iinment 
in  tliis  world.  And  a  Kobert  Burns,  remarkable"  modern  Thor, 
a  IVjisant-god  of  these  sunk  ages,  with  a  touch  of  melodious 
rtines  in  him  (since  all  else  lay  under  ban  for  the  poor  fellow), 
was  raised  on  frugjil  oatmeal,  at  an  exi)ense  of  perhaps  half  a 
crown  a  week.  Nuggets  and  ducats  are  divine;  but  they  are 
not  the  most  divine,  I  often  wish  the  Devil  had  the  lion's 
share  of  them,  —  at  once,  and  not  circuitously  as  now.  It 
would  be  an  unspeakable  advantage  to  the  bewildered  sons  of 
Adam,  in  this  epoch  ! 

But  with  regard  to  our  little  Crown-Prince's  intellectual 
culture,  there  is  another  Document,  specially  from  Papa's 
liand,  which,  if  we  can  redact,  a<ljust  and  abridge  it,  as  in 
the  former  case,  may  be  worth  the  read«'r's  notice,  and  elu- 
cidate some  things  for  him.  It  is  of  date,  Wusterhausen, 
3d  September,  1721 ;  little  Fritz  now  in  his  tenth  year,  and 
out  there,  with  his  Duhans  and  Finkensteins,  while  Papa 
is  rusticating  for  a  few  weeks.  The  essential  title  is,  or 
might  be :  — 

1  Preuss,  i.  17. 


CjiAi'.  VlJl.'CliOWN-PKLNCE  PUT  Tu  HIS  SCHOOLING.    385 


To  Head-Governor  von  Finkenstein,  Sub-Governor  von  Kulk- 
steiu,  Preceptor  Jacques  Eijlde  Duhan  de  Jandun,  and  utiiers 
whom  it  ituiij  concern :  licynlat'wns  for  scIlouIouj,  at  Wustcr- 
hauneu,  '3d  September,  l~'li  ; '  —  iu  greatly  abridged  form. 

Sumlay.  *'  On  Sunday  he  is  to  rise  at  7 ;  and  as  soon  as  he 
has  got  his  slippers  on,  shall  kneel  down  at  his  bedside,  and 
pray  to  God,  so  as  all  in  the  room  may  hear  it  [that  there  be 
no  deception  or  short  measure  palmed  upon  us],  in  these 
words :  *  Lord  God,  blessed  Father,  I  thank  tliee  from  my 
heart  that  thou  h;ist  so  graciously  preserved  me  through  this 
night.  Fit  me  for  what  thy  holy  will  is;  and  grant  that  I 
do  nothing  this  day,  nor  all  the  days  of  my  life,  which  can 
divide  me  from  thee.  For  the  Lord  Jesus  my  liedeemer's 
sake.  Amen.'  After  which  the  Lord's  Prayer.  Then  rapidly 
and  vigorously  (ijesvhwindc  und  hurtifj)  wash  himself  clean, 
dress  and  powder  and  comb  himself  [we  forget  to  say,  that 
while  they  are  combing  and  queuing  him,  he  breakfasts,  with 
brevity,  on  tea]:  Prayer,  with  washing,  breakfast  and  the 
rest,  to  be  done  pointedly  within  iii'teen  minutes  [that  is,  at 
a  quarter  past  7]. 

"This  linished,  all  his  Domestics  and  Duhan  shall  come  in, 
and  do  family  worship  {dus  yrosse  Gebet  zu  halten)  :  Prayer 
on  their  knees,  Duhan  withal  to  read  a  Chapter  of  the  Bible, 
and  sing  some  proper  Psalm  or  Hymn  [as  practised  in  well- 
regulated  families]:  —  It  will  then  be  a  quarter  to  8.  All 
the  Domestics  then  withdraw  again  ;  and  Duhan  now  reads 
with  my  Son  the  Gospel  of  the  Sunday ;  expounds  it  a  little, 
adducing  the  main  points  of  Christianity;  —  questioning  from 
Noltenius's  Catechism  [which  Fritz  knows  by  heart]:  —  it 
will  then  be  9  o'clock. 

"  At  9  he  brings  my  Son  down  to  me ;  who  goes  to  Church, 
and  dines,  along  with  me  [dinner  at  the  stroke  of  Noon] : 
the  rest  of  the  day  is  then  his  own  [Fritz's  and  Duhan's]. 
At  half-past  9  in  the  evening,  he  shall  come  and  bid  me  good- 
night.    Shall  then  directly  go  to  his  room ;  very  rapidly  (sehr 

1  Preuss,  i.  19. 
VOL.  V.  25 


386  Ills   APPKEXTICESHIl*,   FIKST   STAGE.      B.m.k  iv. 

171ii-ii23. 

geschicind)  get  ot?  bis  clothes,  Wiusli  liis  hands  [get  into  some 
tiny  dressing-gown  or  cassaquln,  no  doubt] ,  uud  so  soon  as 
that  is  done,  Duluin  makes  a  prayer  on  his  kuees,  and  sings 
a  hymn ;  all  the  Servants  being  again  there.  Instantly  alter 
which,  my  Son  shall  get  into  bed ;  shall  l>e  in  bed  at  half-past 
10 ;  "  —  and  fall  asleep  how  soon,  your  Majesty  ?  This  is  very 
strict  work. 

Mondaij.  'M^n  Monday,  as  on  all  weck-tlays,  he  is  to  be 
called  at  (>;  and  so  soon  as  chilled  he  is  to  rise;  you  are  to 
stand  to  him  (anha/tcn)  that  he  do  not  loiter  or  turn  in  bed, 
but  briskly  and  at  once  get  up ;  and  say  his  prayers,  the  Siuue 
as  on  .Sunday  morning  This  done,  he  shall  as  rapidly  as 
possible  get  on  his  shoes  and  spatterdashes ;  also  w;ush  his 
face  and  hands,  but  not  with  soap.  Farther  shall  put  on 
his  ni.ssii'/itin  [short  dressing-gown],  have  his.  hair  combed 
out  ami  (puu.il,  but  not  powdered.  While  getting  combed 
and  (pieued,  he  shall  at  tiie  sjuue  time  Uike  breakfast  of  tea, 
so  that  l)oth  joKs  i;o  on  at  once  ;  and  all  this  shall  In?  ended 
l>efore  half-past  (i."  Then  enter  Duhan  and  the  iXuuestics, 
with  worshij>,  Bible,  Hymn,  all  Jis  on  Sunday  ;  this  is  done 
by  7,  anil  the  Servants  go  ag-aiiu 

"From  7  till  9  Duhan  takes  him  on  History;  at  0  comes 
Noltenius  [a  sublimeClerical  Gentleman  from  Pn'rlui]  with 
the  Christian  Religion,  till  a  (piarter  to  1 1.  Then  Fritz 
rapidly  (f/esrhwimi)  washes  his  face  with  water,  hands  with 
soajKind-water ;  clean  shirt;  jK)w«lera,  and  puts  on  his  coat;  — 
about  11  comes  to  the  King.  Stays  with  the  King  till  2,''  — 
perhaps  promenatling  a  little;  dining  always  at  Noon;  after 
which  Majesty  is  apt  to  be  slumberous,  and  light  amusements 
are  over. 

"  Directly  at  2,  he  goes  back  to  his  room.  Duhan  is  there, 
ready  ;  takes  him  upon  the  ^laps  and  Geography,  from  2  to 
3,  —  giving  account  [gradually:]  of  all  the  European  King- 
doms ;  their  strength  and  weakness ;  size,  riches  and  poverty 
of  their  towns.  From  3  to  4,  Duhan  treats  of  Morality  (soU 
die  Moral  tractiren).  From  4  to  5,  Duhan  shall  write  German 
Letters  with  him,  and  see  that  he  gets  a  good  stylum  [which 
he  never  in  the  least  did].     About  5,  Fritz  shall  wash  his 


Chai'.  VIII.  CliOWN-l'KlNCE  PUT  TO  HIS  SCHOOLING.     387 

liuiuls,  and  ^'o  to  the  King;  —  ride  out;  divert  himself,  in  the 
air  and  not  in  his  room ;  and  do  what  he  likes,  if  it  is  not 
against  God." 

There,  then,  is  a  Sunday,  and  there  is  one  "Week-day ;  which 
latter  may  serve  fur  all  tlie  other  live :  —  though  they  are 
strictly  specihed  in  the  royal  monograph,  and  every  hour  of 
them  nuirked  out:  How,  and  at  what  points  of  time,  besides 
this  of  Jlisturi/,  of  Munditij,  and  U'ritiny  in  German,  of  ]\Iaps 
and  Geognqjhy  with  the  strength  and  weakness  of  Kingdoms, 
you  !ire  to  take  up  Arithmetic  more  than  once;  If'ritinf/  of 
French  Letters,  so  as  to  acquire  a  good  stylum :  in  what  nook 
you  may  intercalate  "a  little  getting  by  heart  of  something, 
in  order  to  strengthen  tlie  memory  ;  "  how  instead  of  Xolte- 
uiurt,  Panzendorf  (another  suljlime  Keverend  Gentleman  from 
lierlin,  who  comes  out  express)  gives  the  clerical  di-ill  on 
Tuesday  morning;  —  with  whicli  two  onslaughts,  of  an  hour- 
and-half  each,  the  C'lerieal  Cifuth-men  seem  to  withdraw  for 
the  week,  and  we  lu-ar  no  more  of  them  till  Monday  and 
Tuesday  come  round  again. 

On  Wednesday  we  are  happy  to  observe  a  liberal  slice  of 
holiday  conu^  in.  At  half-past  9,  having  done  his  History,  and 
"got  something  by  heart  to  strengthen  the  memory  [very 
little,  it  is  to  be  feared],  Fritz  shall  rapidly  dress  himself, 
and  come  to  the  King.  And  the  rest  of  the  day  belongs  to 
little  Fritz  {fjehiJrt  mr  Fritzchen).''^  On  Saturday,  too,  there 
is  some  fair  chance  of  half-holiday  :  — 

"  Saturday,  forenoon  till  half-past  10,  come  History,  Writ- 
ing and  Ciphering;  especially  repetition  of  what  was  done 
through  the  week,  and  in  Moi-ality  as  well  [adds  the  rapid 
Majesty],  to  see  whether  he  has  profited.  And  General  Graf 
von  Fmkenstein,  with  Colonel  von  Kalkstein,  shall  be  present 
during  this.  If  Fritz  has  profited,  the  afternoon  shall  be  his 
own.  If  he  has  not  profited,  he  shall,  from  2  to  6,  repeat  and 
learn  rightly  what  he  has  forgotten  on  the  past  days."  And 
so  the  laboring  week  winds  itself  up.  Here,  however,  is  one 
general  rule  which  cannot  be  too  much  impressed  upon  you, 
with  wliich  we  conclude  :  — 


388  HIS   Al'l'RENJ'lCLSllll',    FlIiST   STAlii:.       H-»>k  IV. 

'■Ill  iiiiflressing  and  dressing,  you  must  arcustoni  liiin  to 
get  out  of,  and  into,  his  clothes  as  fast  as  is  humanly  possible 
(hurtlij  so  del  ids  vietuschtninotjllch  ist).  You  will  also  look 
that  he  learn  to  put  on  and  put  off  his  clothes  himself,  with- 
out help  from  others ;  and  that  he  be  clean  and  nrat,  and 
not  so  dirty  {n'uht  so  sc/imutziij):'  "Not  so  dirty,''  that  is  my 
last  word ;  and  here  is  my  sign-manual, 

"FuiEDnn  11  W'lLnKLM."  ' 


CHAITKK    IX. 

WUSTERHAUSKN. 

WusTERHAUSEX,  where  for  the  j>resent  these  operations  go 
on,  lies  about  twenty  English  miles  southeast  of  Berlin,  as 
you  },'o  towarils  Sehlesien  (Silesia)  ; — on  the  old  Silesian  roatl, 
in  a  ri;it  moory  country  made  of  peat  and  sand  ;  —  and  is  not 
distinguished  for  its  beauty  at  all  among  royal  Hunting- 
lodges.  The  Golirde  at  Hanover,  for  example,  what  a  splen- 
dor there  in  comparison  I  lUit  it  serves  Friedrich  Wilhelm's 
simple  purposes :  there  is  game  abundant  in  the  scraggy  wood- 
lands, otter-pools,  fish-pools,  and  miry  thickets,  of  that  old 
"  Srheiikenlanil  "  (belonged  all  once  to  the  "  Sehenken  Fam- 
ily," till  old  King  Friedrich  bought  it  for  his  Prince) ;  retinue 
sulHcicnt  lind  nooks  for  lodgment  in  the  j)oor  old  Schloss 
so  called  ;  and  Xoltenius  and  I'anzendorf  drive  out  each  once 
a  week,  in  some  light  vehicle,  to  drill  Fritz  in  his  religious 
exercises. 

One  ZoUner,  a  Tourist  to  Silesia,  confesses  himself  rather 
pleased  to  fiiid  even  Wusterhausen  in  such  a  country  of  sandy 
beut-grass,  lean  cattle,  and  flat  desolate  languor. 

"  Getting  to  the  top  of  the  ridge  "  (most  insignificant 
"  ridge,"  made  by  hand,  Wilhelmina  satirically  says).  Tourist 
Zollner  can  discern  with  pleasure  "  a  considerable  Brook," 
—  visible,  not  audible,  smooth  Stream,  or  chain  of  meres 
and  lakelets,  flowing  languidly  northward  towards  Kopenik. 

1  Treuss,  i.  21. 


CMA1-.  IX.  WUSTEliliAL'SEN.  389 

17I.i-172;J. 

IiKuuliblt'  big  IJruok  or  Stream ;  which,  we  perceive,  drains  a 
slightly  hollowed  Tract ;  too  shallow  to  be  called  valley,  — 
of  several  iiiiles  in  width,  of  several  yards  in  depth;  —  Tract 
with  wood  here  and  there  on  it,  and  signs  of  grass  and  cul- 
ture, welcome  after  what  you  have  passed.  On  the  foreground 
close  to  you  is  the  Hamlet  of  Kijnigs-Wusterhausen,  with  tol- 
lable Lime-tree  Avenue  leading  to  it,  and  the  air  of  some- 
thing sylvan  from  your  Hill-top.  Kiinigs-Wusterhausen  was 
once  jr'tvK/Z.sA-Westerhausen,  and  not  far  off  is  Deutsch-Wus- 
torhansen,  famed,  I  suppose,  by  faction-tights  in  the  Vandalic 
times  :  both  of  them  are  now  A'/z/y's-Wusterhausen  (since  the 
King  came  thither),  to  distinguish  them  from  other  Wuster- 
liausens  that  there  are. 

Descending,  advancing  through  your  Lime-tree  Avenue, 
you  come  upon  the  backs  of  office-houses,  out-houses,  stables 
or  the  like,  —  on  your  left  hand  I  have  guessed,  —  extending 
along  the  Highway.  And  in  the  middle  of  these  you  come  at 
last  to  a  kintl  of  Gate  or  vaulted  passage  (Art  von  Thor,  says 
Zilllner),  where,  if  you  have  liberty,  you  face  to  the  left,  and 
enter.  Here,  once  through  into  the  free  light  again,  you  are 
in  a  Court :  four-square  space,  not  without  prospect ;  right 
side  and  left  side  are  lodgings  for  his  Majesty's  gentlemen ; 
behind  you,  well  in  their  view,  are  stables  and  kitchens  :  in 
the  centre  of  the  place  is  a  Fountain  "  with  hewn  steps  and 
iron  railings  ;  "  where  his  simple  Majesty  has  been  known  to 
sit  and  smoke,  on  summer  evenings.  The  fourth  side  of  your 
square,  again,  is  a  palisade  ;  beyond  which,  over  bridge  and 
moat  and  intervening  apparatus,  you  perceive,  on  its  trim  ter- 
races, the  respectable  old  Schloss  itself.  A  rectangidar  mass, 
not  of  vast  proportions,  with  tower  in  the  centre  of  it  (tower 
for  screw-stair,  the  general  roadway  of  the  House)  ;  and  look- 
ing though  weather-beaten  yet  weather-tight,  and  as  dignified 
as  it  can.  This  is  "Wusterhausen ;  Friedrich  "NVilhelm's  Hunt- 
ing-seat from  of  old. 

A  dreadfully  crowded  place,  says  Wilhelmina,  where  you 
are  stuffed  into  garrets,  and  have  not  room  to  tui-n.  The  ter- 
races are  of  some  magnitude,  trimmed  all  round  with  a  row  of 
little  clipped  trees,  one  big  lime-tree  at  each  corner  j — under 


390  Ills  Al'l'HENTICESlIll'.   111:.- 1    .-lACK.     I>""k  IV. 

1713-17*1. 

one  of  these  big  lime-trees,  aided  by  an  awning,  it  is  his  Maj- 
esty's delight  to  spreiul  his  frugal  but  substantial  dinner,  four- 
and-twenty  covers,  at  the  stroke  of  I'J,  and  so  dine  sub  dio.  If 
rain  eonie  on,  says  Willudmina,  you  are  wet  to  mid-leg,  the 
ground  being  hollow  in  that  place,  —  and  inlt-^d  in  all  weath- 
ers your  situation  every  way,  to  a  vehement  young  Princess's 
idea,  is  rather  of  the  horrible  sort.  After  dinner,  his  Majesty 
sleejKS,  stretched  perhaps  on  some  wooden  settle  or  garden- 
chair,  for  about  jui  hour ;  regardless  of  the  flaming  lieat,  under 
liis  awning  or  not ;  and  we  poor  Princesses  have  to  wait,  pray- 
ing all  the  Saints  that  they  would  resusciUitc  him  soon.  This 
is  about  U  I'.M.  ;  happier  Fritz  is  gone  to  his  lessons,  in  the 
interim. 

These  four  Terra<*cs,  this  rectmgular  Schloss  with  the  four 
big  lindens  at  the  corners,  are  suirounded  by  a  Moat ;  bla<k 
al>ominable  ditch,  Wilhelmina  calls  it ;  of  the  hue  of  Tarta- 
rean Styx,  and  of  a  far  wor.se  smdl,  in  fact  enough  to  choke 
one,  in  liot  days  after  dinner,  thinks  the  vehement  I'rincess. 
Three  Bridges  cross  this  Moat  or  ditch,  from  the  middle  of 
three  several  Terraces  or  sides  of  the  S<hlo8s  ;  and  on  the 
fourth  it  is  impassable.  Pridge  first,  coming  from  the  j)ali- 
satle  and  ( )tHce-house  Court,  lias  not  only  human  sentries  walk- 
ing at  it ;  but  two  white  Eagles  perch  near  it,  and  two  black 
ditto,  symbols  of  the  heraldic  Prussian  Kaglc,  screeching  about 
in  their  littery  way ;  item  two  black  Bears,  ugly  as  Sin,  which 
are  vicious  wretches  with:d,  and  many  times  do  pjussengers  a 
mischief.  As  jxrhai*  we  shall  see,  on  some  occasion.  This 
is  Bridge  first,  leading  to  the  Court  and  to  the  outer  Highway ; 
a  King's  gentleman,  going  to  bed  at  night,  has  always  to  pass 
these  Bears.  Bridge  second  leads  us  southward  to  a  common 
Mill  wliich  is  near  by ;  its  clacking  audible  upon  the  common 
Stream  of  the  region,  and  not  unpleasant  to  his  Majesty, 
among  its  meadows  fringed  with  alders,  in  a  country  of  mere 
and  moor.  Bridge  third,  directly  opposite  to  Bridge  fi^rst  and 
its  Bears,  leads  you  to  the  Garden ;  whither  Mamma,  playing 
tocadille  all  day  with  her  women,  will  not,  or  will  not  often 
enough,  let  us  poor  girls  go.* 

1  Zolluer,  Brieje  iUr Schlesiea  (Berlin,  1792;,  i.  2, 3 ;  Wilhelmiiia,  i.  364, 365. 


<"-^'-  i->^-  WUSTEKHAUSEN.  3'Jl 

Such  is  Wusterhausen,  as  delineated  by  a  vehement  Tiiucess, 
some  years  hence,  —  who  becomes  at  last  intelligible,  by  study 
and  the  aid  of  oui-  Silesian  Tourist.  It  is  not  distinj^uislicd 
iuuong  Country  I'alaces  :  but  the  ligure  of  Friedrith  Wilhclia 
asleep  there  alter  dinner,  regardless  of  the  flaming  sun  (should 
he  sleep  too  long  and  the  shadow  of  his  Linden  (juit  him),  — 
this  is  a  sight  which  no  other  Palace  in  the  world  can  match  ; 
this  will  long  render  Wusterhausen  memorable  to  me.  His 
Majesty,  early  always  as  the  swallows,  hunts,  I  should  sup- 
pose, "in  the  morning ;  dines  and  sleeps,  we  may  i>orceive,  till 
towai'ds  three,  or  hiter.  His  Olticial  business  he  will  not  neg- 
lect, nor  shirk  the  hours  due  to  it;  towards  svniset  there  may 
be  a  walk  or  ride  with  Fritz,  or  Feekin  and  the  wonuuikind  : 
and  always,  in  the  evening,  his  Majesty  holds  Tabagie,  Tahaks- 
Culltgiiiin  (Smoking  College,  kind  of  Tobacco-Parliament,  as 
we  migiit  name  it),  an  Institution  punctually  attended  to  by 
liis  Majesty,  of  which  we  shall  by  and  by  speak  more.  At 
AVusterhausen  his  Majesty  holds  his  Smoking  Session  mostly 
in  the  open  air,  oftenest  "on  the  steps  of  the  Cireat  Fountain  '' 
(how  arranged,  as  to  seating  and  canvas-screening,  I  cannot 
say);  —  smokes  there,  with  his  Cjrundcows,  Derschaus,  Anhalt- 
Dessaus,  and  select  Friends,  in  various  slow  talk  ;  till  Xight 
kindle  her  mild  starlights,  shake  down  her  dark  curtains  over 
all  Countries,  and  admonish  weary  mortals  that  it  is  now  bed- 
time. 

Not  much  of  the  Picturesque  in  this  autumnal  life  of  our 
little  Boy.  But  he  luis  employments  in  abundance ;  and  these 
make  the  permitted  open  air,  under  any  terms,  a  delight.  He 
can  rove  about  with  Duhan  among  the  gorse  and  heath,  and 
their  wild  summer  tenantry  winged  and  wingless.  In  the 
woodlands  are  wild  swine,  in  the  meres  are  fishes,  otters  ;  the 
drowsy  Hamlets,  scattered  round,  awaken  in  an  interested 
manner  at  the  sound  of  our  pony-hoofs  and  dogs.  Mitten- 
walde,  where  are  shops,  is  within  riding  distance ;  we  could 
even  stretch  to  Ivopenik,  and  visit  in  the  big  Schloss  there, 
if  Duhan  were  willing,  and  the  cattle  fresh.  From  some 
church-steeple   or  sand-knoll,  it  is  to  be   hoped,  some   blue 


392  Ills    Ari'KENTUE.Sllir,    KlUST   .STACK.      Hon.;  IV. 

ITli-lTi^l. 

streak  of  the  Lausitz  Hills  may  bo  visible :  the  Sun  and 
tlie  Moon  aiul  the  Heavenly  Hosts,  these  full  certainly  are 
visible  ;  and  on  an  Earth  which  everywhere  produces  mira- 
cles of  all  kinds,  from  the  daisy  or  heather-bell  up  to  the 
man,  one  place  is  nearly  equal  to  another  for  a  brisk  little 
Boy. 

Fine  Palaces,  it  Wusterhausen  be  a  sorry  one,  are  not 
wanting  to  our  young  Friend :  whatsoever  it  is  in  the  power 
of  arcliitecture  and  ujtholstery  to  do  for  him,  may  be  con- 
sidered withal  as  doni'.  Wusterhausen  is  but  a  Hunting- 
lodge  for  some  few  Autumn  weeks :  the  Berlin  Palace  and  the 
I'utsdam,  grand  buildings  Ixdh,  few  Palaces  in  the  world 
surpass  them  ;  and  there,  in  one  or  the  other  of  these,  is  our 
usual  residence.  —  Little  Fritz,  besides  liLs  young  Finken- 
stc'ins  and  others  of  the  lik»>,  h;is  Cousins,  children  of  his 
(Jrandfather's  Half-brotlu'rs,  who  are  comrades  of  his.  For 
llie  (jreat  Elector,  as  we  saw,  w;us  twice  wedded,  and  had 
a  si'cond  set  of  sons  and  daughters  :  two  of  the  sons  had 
chihlren;  certain  of  these  are  alx>ut  the  Crown-Prince's  own 
age,  "Cousins"  of  his  (strictly  si)eakiug,  Half-cousins  of  /</.>• 
I^df/iers),  who  are  much  altout  him  in  his  young  days,  —  and 
more  or  less  afterwards,  according  to  the  worth  they  proved 
to  have.  Margraves  and  Margravines  of  Schwedt,  —  there  are 
live  or  six  of  sucli  young  Ccmsins.  Not  to  mention  the  eldest, 
Friedrich  Wilhelm  by  name,  who  is  now  come  to  manhood 
(born  1700);  —  who  wished  much  in  after  years  to  have  hail 
Wilhelmina  to  wife ;  but  hatl  to  put  up  with  a  younger 
I'rineess  of  the  House,  and  ought  to  have  been  thankful. 
This  one  has  a  younger  Brother,  Heinrich,  slightly  Fritz's 
senior,  and  much  his  comrade  at  one  time ;  of  whom  we  shall 
transiently  hear  again.  Of  these  two  the  ()ld  Dessauer  is 
Uncle  :  if  both  his  Majesty  and  the  Crown-I'rince  should  die, 
one  of  these  would  be  king.  A  circumstance  which  Wilhol- 
mina  and  the  Queen  have  laid  well  to  heart,  and  build  many 
•wild  suspicions  upon,  in  these  years !  As  that  the  Old 
Dessauer,  with  his  gunpowder  face,  has  a  plot  one  day  to 
assassinate  his  ^lajesty,  —  plot  evident  as  sunlight  to  Wilhel- 
mina  and  Mamma,  which  providentially  came  to  nothing ;  — 


»^>iA«'.  IX.  WU8TEKHAUSEX.  393 

and  other  spectral  notions  of  theirs.^  The  Father  of  these 
two  Margraves  (elder  of  the  two  Half-brothers  that  have 
childi-en)  died  in  the  time  of  Old  King  Friedrich,  eight  or 
nine  years  ago.  Their  Mother,  the  scheming  old  Margravine, 
whom  1  always  fancy  to  dress  in  high  colors,  is  still  living, — 
as  Wilhelmina  well  knows  ! 

Then,  by  another,  the  younger  of  those  old  Half-brothers, 
there  is  a  Karl,  a  second  Friedrich  AVilhelm,  Cousin  Mar- 
graves :  plenty  of  Cousins ;  —  and  two  young  Margravines 
among  them,''  the  youngest  about  Fritz's  own  age.^  No  want 
of  Cousins  ;  the  Crown-Prince  seeing  much  of  them  all ;  and 
learning  pleasantly  their  various  qualities,  which  were  good  in 
most,  in  some  not  so  good,  and  did  not  turn  out  supreme  in  any 
case.  lUit,  for  the  rest,  Sister  "Wilhelmina  is  his  grand  con- 
federate and  comi)anion  ;  true  in  sport  and  in  earnest,  in  joy 
and  in  sorrow.  Their  truthful  love  to  one  another,  now  and 
till  death,  is  probably  the  brightest  element  their  life  yielded 
to  either  of  them. 

"What  might  be  the  date  of  Fritz's  first  appearance  in  the 
Roucoulles  "  Soiree  held  on  Wetbiesdays,"  in  the  Finkenstein 
or  any  other  Soiree,  as  an  independent  figure,  1  do  not  know. 

1  Willieliuina,  i.  35,  41.  2  Michaclis,  i.  425. 

8  Xole  nf'ifie  Cousin  Mar;fraris. — Great  Elector,  by  his  Second  Wife,  liatl 
five  Sons,  two  of  wliom  left  Chiklreu  ;  —  as  follows  (so  far  as  they  concern 
us,  —  the  others  umitled) :  — 

1°.  Sou  P/iili/i's  Ch''dren  (Mother  the  Old  Dessauer's  Sister)  are:  Fried- 
rich Wilhelm  (1700),  who  wished  much,  but  in  vaiu,  to  marry  Wilhelmina. 
Ileiurich  Friedrich  (1709),  a  comrade  of  Fritz's  iu  youth;  sometimes  getting 
into  scrapes;  —  misbeliaved,  some  way,  at  the  Battle  of  Molwi.z  (first  of 
Friodridi's  Battles),  1741,  and  was  inexorably  cut  by  the  new  King,  and 
continued  under  a  cloud  thenceforth.  —  This  Philip  ("  Plii!i)j  Wilhelm")  died 
1711,  his  forty-third  year  ;  Widow  long  survived  him. 

2°.  Sun  Albert's  Children  (Mother  a  Courlaud  Princess)  are:  Karl  (1705); 
lived  near  Ciistrin  ;  became  a  famed  captain,  in  the  Silesian  Wars,  under  his 
Cousin.  Friedrich  (1701 ) ;  fell  at  Molwitz,  1741.  Friedrich  Wilhelm  (a  Mar- 
graf  Friedrich  Willielm  "  No.  2,"  —  namesake  of  his  now  Majesty,  it  is  like)  ; 
born  1714;  killed  at  Frag,  by  a  cannon-shot  (at  King  Friedrich's  hand, 
reconnoitring  the  place),  1744. —  This  Albert  ("Albert  Friedrich")  died 
suddenly  1731,  age  fifty-nine. 


o[)\  Ills   Ai'J'liENTlCLSlilP,    FIKST   STAGE.      U«k.k  IV. 

I7i;i-i72;i. 

Jiut  at  tlie  j)roper  time,  he  does  appear  there,  and  with 
distinction  not  extrinsic  alone; — talks  delightfully  in  sucli 
places  ;  can  discuss,  even  with  French  Divines,  in  a  charm- 
ingly ingenious  manner.  Another  of  his  elderly  consorts  1 
must  mention  :  Colonel  Canuis,  a  highly  cultivated  Frenchman 
(French  altogether  by  paivntage  and  breeding,  though  born  on 
I'russian  land),  who  was  Tutor,  at  one  time,  to  some  of  those 
young  Margraves.  He  has  lost  an  arm, — left  it  in  those 
Italian  Campaigns,  under  Anhalt-Dessau  and  Eugene;  —  but 
by  the  aid  of  a  cork  substitute,  dexterously  managed,  almost 
hides  the  want.  A  gallant  soldier,  tit  for  the  diplomataes  too; 
a  man  of  tine  high  ways.*  Ami  then  his  Wife  —  In  fact,  the 
Camas  House,  we  perceive,  had  from  an  early  time  been  one 
of  the  Crown-Prince's  haunts.  Madam  Camas  is  a  German 
Lady ;  but  for  genial  elegance,  for  wit  and  wisdom  and  good- 
ness, could  not  readily  be  paralleled  in  France  or  elsewhere. 
Of  both  these  Camases  there  will  be  honorable  and  important 
mention  by  and  by  ;  especially  of  the  Lady,  whom  he  con- 
tinues to  call  "Mamma"  for  fifty  years  to  come,  and  corre- 
sponds with  in  a  very  beautiful  and  human  fashion. 

Under  these  au8])ices,  in  such  environnuMit,  dindy  visible  to 
us,  at  Wnsterhausen  and  elsewhere,  is  the  remarkablest  little 
Crown-Prince  of  his  century  growing  up,  —  prosperously  as 
yet. 


CHAPTEll   X. 

THK  HEIDELBERG  PROTEST  ANTS. 

Friedrich  WiLUELM  holds  Tabagie  nightly  ;  but  at  Wns- 
terhausen or  wherever  he  may  be,  there  is  no  lack  of  intricate 
Official  Labor,  which,  even  in  the  Tabagie,  Friedrich  Wilhelm 
does  not  forget.  At  the  time  he  was  concocting  those  In- 
structions for  his  little  Prince's  Schoolmasters,  and  smoking 
meditative  under  the  stars,  with  ^lagdeburg  '^ Ritter-Dieiist" 
and  much  else  of  his  own  to  think  of,  —  there  is  an  extraneous 

1  Mililair-LixlLou,  i.  308. 


C-Fivr.  X.        THE   HEIDELBERG   PROTESTANTS.  305 

Political  Intricacy,  making  noise  enough  in  the  world,  much 
in  his  thoughts  withal,  and  no  doubt  occasionally  murmured 
of  amid  the  tobacco-clouds.  The  Business  of  the  Heidelberg 
Protestants;  which  is  just  coming  to  a  height  in  those  Autumn 
months  of  1719. 

Indeed  this  Year  1719  was  a  paiticularly  noisy  one  for  him. 
This  is  the  year  of  the  "  nephritic  colic,"  which  befell  at 
Brandenburg  on  some  journey  of  his  Majesty's ;  with  alarm 
of  iniinediate  d(\ith  ;  Queen  Sophie  sent  for  by  express  ;  testa- 
ment made  in  her  favor;  and  intrigues,  very  black  ones,  Wil- 
helmina  thinks,  following  thereupon.^  And  the  "Affair  of 
Clement,"  on  which  the  old  Books  are  so  profuse,  falls  liki'- 
wise,  the  crisis  of  it  falls,  in  1719.  Of  Clement  the  "Hun- 
garian Nobleman,"  wlio  was  a  mere  Hungarian  .Swindler,  and 
Forger  of  Koyal  Letters ;  sowing  mere  discords,  black  suspi- 
cions, betwei'u  Friedrirli  Willxdm  and  the  neighboring  Court.;, 
Imperial  and  Saxon:  '"Your  Majesty  to  be  snapt  up,  some 
day,  ])y  liired  ruffians,  and  spirited  away,  for  btdioof  of  those 
tn^iclierous  C'ourts  :  "  so  that  Friedrich  Wilhtdm  fell  into  a 
gloom  of  melancholy,  and  for  long  weeks  "  never  slept  but 
with  a  pair  of  loaded  pistols  under  his  pillow:" — of  this 
Ch'uient,  an  adroit  I'henomenon  of  the  kind,  and  intensely 
agitating  to  Friedrich  Wilhelm ;  —  whom  Friedrich  Wilhelni 
had  at  last  to  lay  hold  of,  try,  this  very  year,  and  ultimately 
liang,*  amid  the  rumor  and  wonder  of  mankind :  —  of  him, 
noisy  as  he  was,  and  still  tilling  many  pages  of  the  old  Books, 
a  hint  shall  suffice,  and  we  will  say  nothing  farther.  But  this 
of  the  Heidelberg  Protestants,  though  also  rather  an  extinct 
business,  has  still  some  claims  on  us.  This,  in  justice  to  the 
"  inarticulate  man  of  genius,"  and  for  other  reasons,  we  must 
endeavor  to  resuscitate  a  little. 

1  iWmoires  de  Bareith,  i.  26-29. 

2  Had  arrived  in  Berlin,  "  end  of  1 71 7  ;  "  staved  about  a  year,  often  privately 
in  the  King's  company,  poisoning  the  royal  mind  ;  withdrew  to  the  Hague, 
suspecting  Berlin  might  soon  grow  dangerous;  —  is  wiled  out  of  that  Terri- 
tory into  the  Prussian,  and  arrested,  by  one  of  Friedrich  Willielm's  Colonels, 
"  end  of  1718  ;  "  lies  in  Spandau,  getting  tried,  for  seventeen  months;  hanged, 
with  two  Accomjdices,  18th  April,  1720.  (See,  in  succession,  Stenzel,  iii.  298, 
302;  Fassmanu,  p.  321  ;  Forster,  ii  272,  and  iii.  .320-324.) 


396 


HIS  APPKENTICESIIIP,   FIK^^T  STAGi:.      """k  IV. 

ITi.J-lT-M. 


Of  Knr-Pfalz  Karl  Philip  :  ILno  he  t/ot  a  Wife  loivj  nince, 
(ind  did  FmU  in  the  World. 

There  reigns,  in  these  years,  at  HeideU)erg,  as  Elector  l*ahv- 
tine,  a  kind-tempered  but  abrupt  and  somewhat  unreasonable 
old  gentleman,  now  verging  towards  sixty,  Karl  I'hilip  by 
name ;  who  has  et)me  athwart  tlie  Berlin  Court  and  its  affairs 
more  than  once;  and  will  again  do  so,  in  a  singularly  disturl»- 
ing  way.  From  l>efore  Friedrieh  Wilheliu's  birth,  all  through 
Friedrich  Wilhelm's  life  and  farth'.M",  this  Karl  IMiilip  is  a 
stone-of-stumbling  there.  His  first  feat  in  life  was  that  of 
running  off  with  a  I'russian  Princess  from  Berlin  ;  the  rumor 
of  which  was  still  at  its  height  when  Friedrich  Willielm,  a 
fortnight  after,  came  into  the  world,  —  the  gossips  still  talking 
of  it,  we  may  fancy,  when  Friedrich  Wilhelm  was  first  swad- 
dled.    An  unheard-of  thing  ;  the  manner  of  which  was  this. 

Reatlers  have  perhaps  forgotten,  tliat  old  King  Friedrich  I. 
once  ha<l  a  Brother;  eldt»r  Brother,  wlio  died,  to  the  Father's 
great  sorrow,  and  made  way  for  Friedrich  as  Crown-Prince. 
This  Brother  h:ul  l)cen  married  a  short  time  ;  he  left  a  Widow 
without  children  ;  a  Ix'autiful  Lithuanian  Princess,  Iwrn  Rad- 
zivil,  and  of  great  possessions  in  her  own  country :  she,  in  her 
crapes  and  close-cap,  remain'^d  an  ornament  to  the  new  Berlin 
Court  for  some  time;  —  not  too  long.  The  mourning-year 
once  out,  a  new  marriage  came  on  foot  for  the  brilliant  widow  ; 
the  Bridegroom,  a  James  Sobieski,  eldest  Prince  of  the  famous 
John,  King  Sobieski ;  Prince  with  fair  outlooks  towards  Polish 
Sovereignty,  and  handy  for  those  Lithuanian  Possessions  fif 
hers :  altogether  an  eligible  match. 

This  marriage  was  on  foot,  not  quite  completed ;  when  Karl 
Philip,  Cadet  of  the  Pfalz,  came  to  Berlin;  —  a  rather  idle 
young  man.  once  in  the  clerical  way ;  now  gone  into  the  military, 
with  secular  outlooks,  his  elder  Brother,  Heir-Apparent  of  the 
Pfalz,  "having  no  children  :" — came  to  Berlin,  in  the  course 
of  visiting,  and  roWng  about.  The  beautiful  Widow-Princess 
seemed  very  charming  to  Karl  Philip;  he  wooed  hard;  threw 
the  Princess  into  great  perplexity.     She  had  given  her  Yes 


r.rvi-.  X.  THE   HEIDELBERG   PROTESTANTS.  307 

ITl'.t. 

to  James  Sobieski ;  inevitable  wedding-day  was  coming  on 
with  James  ;  and  here  was  Karl  Philip  wooing  so  :  —  in  brief, 
tlie  result  was,  she  galloped  off  with  Karl  Philip,  on  the  evo 
of  said  weddingnlay  ;  married  Karl  Philip  (24th  July,  1GS8) ; 
and  left  Prince  James  standing  there,  too  much  like  Lot's 
AVife,  in  the  astonislied  Court  of  Berlin.^  Judge  if  the  Berlin 
l)ublic  talked,  —  unintelligible  to  Friedrich  Wilhelm,  then  safe 
in  swaddling-clotlies. 

King  Sobieski,  tlie  Father,  famed  Deliverer  of  Vienna,  was 
in  higlr  dudgeon.  But  Karl  Philip  apologized,  to  all  lengths  ; 
made  his  peace  at  last,  giving  a  Sister  of  his  own  to  be  "Wife 
to  the  injured  Janu's.  This  was  Karl  I'liilip's  first  outbreak 
in  life  ;  and  it  was  not  his  only  one.  A  man  not  ill-tlisposed, 
all  grant ;  but  evidently  of  headlong  turn,  with  a  tendency  to 
leap  fences  in  this  world.  He  has  since  been  soldiering  about, 
in  a  loose  way,  governing  Innspruck,  fighting  the  Turks.  But, 
lately,  his  elder  Brother  died  childless  (year  171G);  and  left 
him  Kurfiirst  of  the  Pfalz.  His  fair  Radzivil  is  dead  long  ago  ; 
''  she,  and  a  successor,  or  it  may  be  two.  Except  one  Daughter, 
whom  the  fair  Radzivil  left  him,  he  has  no  children ;  and  in 
these  times,  I  think,  lives  with  a  third  Wife,  of  the  left-hand 
kind. 

His  scarcity  of  progeny  is  not  so  indifferent  to  my  readers 
as  they  might  suppose.  This  new  Kur-Pfnlz  (Elector-Palatine) 
Karl  Pliilip  is  by  genealogy  —  who,  thinks  the  reader  ?  Pfalz- 
Xeuburg  by  line  ;  own  Grandson  of  that  Wolfgang  Wilhelm, 
Avho  got  the  slap  on  the  face  long  since,  on  account  of  the  Clevc- 
Jiilich  matter  !  So  it  has  come  round.  The  Line  of  Simmeru 
(lied  out,  Winter-King's  Grandson  the  last  of  that ;  and  then, 
as  right  was,  the  Line  of  Neuburg  took  the  top  place,  and 
became  Kur-Pfalz.  The  first  of  these  was  this  Karl  Philii)'3 
Father,  son  of  the  Beslapped ;  an  old  man  wlien  he  succeeded. 
Karl  Philip  is  the  third  Kur-Pfalz  of  the  Neuburg  Line ;  his 
childless  elder  Brother  (he  who  collected  the  Pictures  at 
Dusseldorf,  once  notable  there)  was  second  of  the  Xeuburgs. 
They  now,  we  say,  are  Electors-Palatine,  Head  of  the  House  ; 
—  and,  we  need  not  add,  along  with  their  Electorate  and 
1  Michaelis,  ii.  93. 


398  Ills  APPHENTICESIIIP,  FIRST  STAGE.      n.»'>K  IV. 

I7i;}-i;2;i. 

Neuburg  Country,  possess  the  Cleve  Jiilicli  Moiety  of  Heri- 
tage, about  whiiih  there  was  such  worrying  in  time  past.  Nay 
the  last  Kur-Pfalz  resideil  there,  and  coUeeteil  the  •'  DussehU^rf 
Gallery,"  as  we  have  just  said  ;  though  Karl  I'hilip  prel't-rs 
Heidelberg  hitherto. 

To  Friedrich  Williflni  the  scarcity  ni  prog^Miy  is  a  thriee- 
interesting  fact.  For  if  this  actual  Neuburg  should  leave  no 
male  heir,  as  is  now  humanly  probable,  —  the  Line  of  Neuburg 
too  is  out;  and  then  great  things  ought  to  follow  for  our  I'rus- 
sian  House.  Then,  by  tin'  htst  Bargain,  made  in  l(i<)(»,  with 
all  solemnity,  between  the  Great  Elector,  our  Grandfather  of 
famous  memory,  and  your  serene  Father  the  then  I'falz-Neu- 
burg,  subseipicntly  Kur-Pfalz,  likewise  of  famous  memory,  son 
of  the  iJeslapped, — the  whole  Heritage  falls  to  Prussia,  no 
other  I'falz  Uranch  having  thenceforth  the  le;ust  claim  to  it. 
liargain  wa.s  exjtress;  sigiuMl,  sealed,  sanctioned,  drawn  out  on 
the  due  extent  of  sheepskin,  which  can  still  b«»  read.  liarg-.iin 
clear  enough  :  but  will  this  Karl  Philip  incline  to  keep  it  ? 

That  may  one  day  be  the  interesting  question.  Put  that  is 
not  the  question  of  controversy  at  present :  not  that,  but 
another  ;  for  Karl  Philip,  it  would  seem,  is  to  be  a  frequent 
stone-of-stumbling  to  the  Prussian  House.  The  present  ques- 
tion is  of  a  Protestant-Papist  matter ;  into  which  Friedrich 
Wilhehn  has  lx?en  drawn  by  his  public  spirit  alone. 

A'lirl  PJiilip  ami  his  Jleidclhcrg  Protcntantg. 

The  Pfalz  population  was,  from  of  old,  Protestant-Calvinist ; 
the  Electors-Palatine  used  to  be  distinguished  for  their  for- 
wardness in  that  matter.  So  it  still  is  with  the  Pfalz  popula- 
tion ;  but  with  the  Electors,  now  that  the  House  of  Simmern 
is  out,  and  that  of  Neuburg  in,  it  is  not  so.  The  Neuburgs, 
ever  since  that  slap  on  the  face,  have  continued  Popish  ;  a 
sore  fact  for  this  Protestant  popiilation,  when  it  got  them  for 
Sovereigns.  Karl  Philip's  Father,  an  old  soldier  at  Vienna, 
and  the  elder  Brother,  a  collector  of  Pictures  at  Dusseldorf, 
did  not  outwardly  much  molest  the  creed  of  their  subjects. 
Protestants,  and  the  remnant  of  Catholics  (remnant  naturally 


cha.-.  X.      Tin:  111:11  )i:iJ5ERG  protest  ants.  399 

171'J. 

rather  expaudiug  now  that  the  Court  shone  on  it),  were  al- 
lowed to  live  in  peace,  according  to  the  Treaty  of  Westphalia, 
or  nearly  so  ;  dividing  the  churches  and  church-revenues  equi 
tably  between  them,  iis  directed  there.  But  now  that  Karl 
Philip  is  come  in,  there  is  no  mistaking  his  procedures.  He 
has  come  home  to  Heidelberg  with  a  retinue  of  Jesuits  about 
him ;  to  whom  the  poor  old  gentleman,  looking  beiore  and 
after  on  this  troublous  world,  finds  it  salutary  to  give  ear. 

His  nibblings  at  Trotestant  rights,  his  contrivances  to  sli(Ui 
Catholics  into  churches  which  were  not  theirs,  and  the  like 
foul-play  in  that  matter,  had  been  sorrowful  to  see,  for  some 
time  past.  The  Elector  of  Mainz,  Chief-l'riest  of  Germany, 
is  busy  in  the  same  bad  direction  ;  he  and  others.  Indeed,  ever 
since  the  Peace  of  Ryswick,  where  Louis  XIV.  surreptitiously 
introduced  a  certain  "  Clause,"  which  could  never  be  got  rid  of 
again,*  nibbling  aggressions  of  this  kind  have  gone  on  more 
and  more.  Always  too  sluggishly  resisted  by  the  Corpus 
Kcaiiijeliconim,  in  the  Diets  or  otherwise,  the  "  United  Prot- 
ectant Sovereigns  "  not  being  an  active  "  Body  "  there.  And 
now  more  sluggishly  than  ever  ;  —  said  Corptis  having  August 
Elector  of  Saxony,  Catholic  (Sham-Catholic)  King  of  Poland, 
for  its  Olhcial  Head  ;  '"August  the  Physically  Strong,"  a  man 
highly  unconcerned  for  matters  Evangelical !  So  that  the  nib- 
blings go  on  -worse  and  worse.  An  offence  to  all  Protestant 
Kulcrs  who  had  any  conscience  ;  at  length  an  unbearable  one 
to  Friedrich  Wilhelm,  who,  alone  of  them  all,  decided  to  inter- 
vene effectually,  and  say,  at  whatever  risk  there  might  be,  "We 
■will  not  stand  it  ! 

Karl  Philip,  after  some  nibblings,  took  up  the  Heidelberg 

1  "  Clause  of  the  Fourth  Article  "  is  the  technical  name  of  it.  Fourth  Article 
stipulates  that  King  Louis  XIV.  shall  punctually  restore  all  manner  of  towns 
and  places,  in  the  Palatinate  &c.  (much  burnt,  somewhat  be-jcsuiled  too,  in  late 
Wars,  by  the  said  King,  during  his  occupancy)  :  Clause  of  Fourth  Article 
(added  to  it,  by  a  quirk,  "  at  midnight,"  say  the  Books)  contains  merely  these 
words,  "  Religione  tamen  CathoUcd  Romani,  in  locis  sic  restitutis,  in  statu  quo 
nunc  est  remanente :  Roman-Catholic  religion  to  continue  as  it  now  is  [as  u-e 
have  made  it  to  be]  in  such  to\^Tis  and  places."  —  Which  Clause  gave  rise  to 
very  groat  but  ineffectual  lamenting  and  debating.  (Scholl,  Tr<iit€s  de  Paix 
(Par.  1SI7),  i.  433-438;  Buchholz  j  Spittler,  Geschichte  Wiirtemliergs ;  &c). 


400  lliS  ArrULN  TRESIlll'     FIRST  STALU:.      li<><'K  IV. 

I7i;j-i:2{. 

Catechism  (which  candiilly  calls  the  Mass  "idolatrous'"),  and 
ordered  said  Catechism,  an  Authorized  Book,  to  cease  in  his 
dominions.  Ilessen-Cassel,  a  i'rotestant  neiijhbor,  pleaded, 
remonstrated,  Friedrich  Wilhelm  gloominLj  in  the  n-ar  ;  but 
to  no  jmrjiose.  Our  old  gentleman,  his  Priests  IxMng  very  dili- 
gent upon  him,  decided  next  to  g»'t  possession  of  the  Ht-Uifje- 
(Ifist  Kinhe  (Chunh  of  the  Holy  (Jhost,  principal  IMaco  of 
Worship  at  IleidellH?rg),  and  nuike  it  his  principal  Cathedral 
Church  there.  l?y  Treaty  of  Westphalia,  or  peaeeahly  other- 
wise, the  Catliolics  are  alrea»ly  in  j)ossession  of  the  Choir:  but 
the  whole  Church  would  Ik?  so  much  Ix^tter.  "  Was  it  not 
Catholic  once?"  thought  Karl  Philip  to  himself:  "  built  by 
our  noble  Ancestor  Kaiser  IJui^rt  (d'  the  I'fal/,  llujx'rt  Khnim. 
["  Pincers,"  so  named  for  his  firmness  of  mind]  :  —  why  should 
those  Heretics  have  it  ?  I  will  Imild  them  another!"  These 
thoughts,  in  17P.),  the  third  year  of  Karl  Piiilip's  rule,  had 
broken  out  into  ojien  actiim  (2i)th  August,  4th  Septendx'r  the 
consummation  of  it) ; '  and  ])recisely  in  the  time  when  Fried- 
rich  Wilhelm  was  jH'iining  that  first  l)ida<'tic  Morsel  which  we 
read,  grave  clouds  from  the  Palatinate  were  beginning  to  over- 
shailow  the  royal  mind  more  or  less. 

F'or  the  poor  Heidelberg  Consistorium,  as  they  could  not 
undertake  to  give  up  their  Church  on  request  of  his  Serenity, 
—  '"How  dare  we,  or  can  we  ?"  answered  they,  —  hatl  been 
driven  out  by  compulsion  and  strat;igem.  Partly  strategic 
was  the  plan  adopted,  to  avoid  violence;  smith's  picklocks 
being  employed,  and  also  mason's  crowbars  :  but  the  end  was. 
On  the  31st  of  August,  1710,  Consistorium  and  Congregation 
found  themselves  fairly  in  the  street,  and  the  Heiiir/e-Geist 
Kirrke  clean  gone  from  them.  Screen  of  the  Choir  is  torn 
down ;  one  big  Catholic  edifice  now ;  getting  decorated  into 
a  Court  Church,  where  Serene  Highness  may  feel  his  mind 
comfortable. 

The  poor  Heidelbergers,  thus  thrown  into  the  street,  made 
applications,  lamentations :  but  with  small  prospect  of  help: 
to  whom  apply  with  any  sure  prospect  ?  Remonstrances 
from  Hessen-Cassel  have  proved  unavailing  with  his  bigoted 

1  Slauvillon,  i.  340-345. 


CiiAi'.  X.  THE    IIi:iDELBLKG    I'liUTLSTANTS.  401 

1711). 

►Serene  Iliglniess.  Curpus  Eoangelicoruin,  so  presided,  over  as 
at  present,  what  can  l)e  had  of  such  a  Corjius  ?  Long-winded 
lui'ubrations  at  the  utmost ;  real  action,  in  such  a  matter, 
none.  ( )r  will  the  Kaiser,  his  Jesuits  advising  him,  interfere 
to  do  us  justice  ?  Kur-Mainz  and  the  rest;  —  it  is  everywhere 
•ne  story.  Everywhere  unhappy  Protestantism  getting  bad 
nsaj^e,  and  ever  worse ;  and  no  Corpus  KcaiKjel'u-oruin,  or  ap- 
jiointed  Watch-dog,  doing  other  than  hang  its  ears,  and  look 
sorry  for  itself  and  us  !  — 

The  Heidelbergers,  however,  had  api»lied  to  Friedricii  ^^'il- 
lielm  among  others.  Friedrich  Wilhelm,  who  had  long  looked 
on  these  Anti-l*rotestant  ])henomena  with  increasing  anger, 
found  now  that  this  of  the  Heidelberg  Catechism  and  llc'dhjc- 
dKtst  Klrclw  w;u5  enough  to  make  one's  patience  run  over, 
^'our  unruly  Catholic  bull,  jjlunging  about,  and  goring  men  iji 
(hat  mad  absurd  manner,  it  will  behoove  that  somel)ody  take 
Liiii  l)y  the  horns,  or  by  the  tiiil,  and  teach  him  manners. 
'J'iMi'h  him,  not  by  vocal  ju'ecepts,  it  is  likely,  which  would 
aVail  nothing  on  such  a  brute,  but  by  practical  cudgelling  and 
scourging  to  the  due  pitch.  Tacilic  Friedrich  Wilhelm  per- 
ceived that  he  himself  would  have  to  do  that  disagreeable 
feat :  —  the  growl  of  him,  on  coming  to  such  resolution,  must 
have  been  consolatory  to  these  poor  Heidell>ergers,  when  they 
applied  I  —  His  plan  is  very  sim[ile,  as  the  plans  of  genius  are; 
but  a  plan  leading  direct  to  the  end  desired,  and  probaljly 
tlie  only  one  that  would  have  done  so,  in  the  circumstances. 
Cudgel  in  hand,  he  takes  the  Catholic  bull,  —  shall  we  say,  by 
tlu'  horns  ?  —  more  properly  perhaps  by  the  tail ;  and  teaches 
him  manners. 

Frudrich  Wilhchn's  Method  ;  — jjroves  remedial  in 
Heidelherg. 

Friedrich  Wilhelm's  first  step,  of  course,  was  to  remonstrate 
pacifically  with  his  Serene  Highness  on  the  Heidelberg-Church 
affair :  from  this  he  probably  expected  nothing ;  nor  did  he 
get  anything.  Getting  nothing  from  this,  and  the  countenance 
of  external  Protestant  Powers,  especially  of  George  I.  and  the 


402  HIS   ArrKKNTRKSlIIl',    FIIIST  STACK.      1{«'.>k  IV. 

I7i;i-i7-j;j. 

Dutch,  being  i)n)mist*il   him  in  ulterior  lucasuics,  he  directed 

his  Administrative  ( >tHcials  in  Magih-hurg,  in  Minden,  in  llam- 

ersU^ben,  where  are  Catholic   Foundations  of  inijiortance,  to 

assemble  the  Catholic  Canons,  Abbots,  chief  Priests  and  all 

"whom  it  might  concern  in  these   three  I'hices.  and  to  signify 

to  them  as  follows  :  — 

"From  us,  your  l*rotest;int  Sovereign,  ynu  VKursilvcs  and 
all  men  will  witness,  you  have  hitlu-rto  luul  the  best  of  usage, 
fair-play,  according  to  the  Laws  of  tlie  Re'uh,  and  even  more. 
With  the  I'rotestants  at  IIeidellx>rg,  on  the  part  of  the  Catholic 
I'owers,  it  is  diffr-rent.  It  must  cease  to  be  different ;  it  mu.st 
become  the  same.  And  to  make  it  do  so,  you  are  the  imph'- 
ment  I  have.  Sorry  for  it,  but  there  is  no  other  handy.  From 
this  day  your  Churches  also  are  dosed,  your  l'ul)lic  Worship 
o««ises,  and  furthermore  your  Revenues  cease ;  and  all  makes 
dead  halt,  an«l  falls  torpid  in  respect  of  you.  From  this  day; 
and  so  continues,  till  the  day  (may  it  l)e  soon  I)  when  the 
Heididlx'rg  Church  of  the  Holy  Ghost  is  opened  again,  and 
right  done  in  that  question.  Be  it  yours  to  speed  such  day  :  it 
is  you  that  can  and  will,  you  who  know  tho.se  high  Catholic 
regions,  inju'cessible  to  your  Protestant  Sovert'ign.  Till  then 
you  are  as  deatl  men ;  teminirarily  fallen  dead  for  a  purpose. 
And  herewith  (lod  have  you  iu  his  keeping  I  "  * 

That  was  Friedrich  Wilhelm's  plan  ;  the  simplest,  but  prob- 
ably the  one  effectual  plan.  Infallible  this  plan,  if  you  dare 
stand  u]K)n  it ;  which  Friedrich  Wilhehn  does.  lie  has  a 
formidable  Army,  ready  for  fight;  a  Treasury  or  Army-chest 
in  good  order.  George  I.  seconds,  according  to  bargain  ;  shuts 
the  Catholic  Church  at  Zclle  in  his  Liineburg  Countr}',  in  like 
fashion ;  Dutch,  too,  and  Swiss  will  endorse  the  matter,  should 
it  grow  too  serious.  All  which,  involving  some  diplomacy 
and  correspondence,  is  managed  with  the  due  promptitude, 
moreover.'^  Ami  so  certain  doors  are  locked;  and  Friedrich 
Wilhelm's  word,  unalterable  as  gravitation,  has  gone  forth. 

1  Mauvillon.  i.  .347.  349. 

2  Church  of  Zelle  shut  up,  4th  Xoveraber ;  Mindcn,  28th  November  ;  Mon- 
astery of  Haniersletn'u,  .'lil  T)eccinl)er.  &o  (Putter,  Historische  Eulwickflunrj  der 
heulifjfn  SlacUsreiJiissuiiij  Jts  Teutschai  Reichs,  Gottingon,  1 783,  ii.  384,  3'JO). 


n.AP.  X.  TiiK    HEIDELBERG   PROTESTANTS.  403 

11 M. 

In  this  iiKinnor  is  the  mad  Catholic  bull  takeu  by  the  f<nl : 
keep  fast  hold,  uiid  apply  your  cudgel  duly  in  that  attitude, 
lie  will  not  gore  you  any  more  ! 

Tlie  Magdel)urg-IIunierslebeu  people  shrieked  piteously  ;  not 
to  Frifdricli  Willielm,  whom  they  knew  to  be  deaf  on  that 
side  of  his  head,  but  to  the  Kaiser,  to  the  Pope,  to  the  Serenity 
of  Heidelberg.  Serene  Highness  of  Heidelberg  was  nuu;li 
hutfed ;  Kaiser  ilreadfully  so,  and  wrote  heavy  menacing  re- 
bukes. To  which  Friedrieh  Wilhelm  listened  with  a  minimum 
of  rf^ply  ;  keeping  firm  hold  of  the  tail,  in  such  bellowing  of 
the  animal.  The  end  was,  Serene  Highness  had  to  comply ; 
within  three  months,  Kaiser,  Serene  Higlniess  and  the  other 
parties  interested,  found  that  there  wouhl  l)e  nothing  for  it 
but  to  compose  themselves,  and  do  what  was  just.  April  Kith, 
1720,  the  Protestants  are  reinstated  in  their  Ht'Ui<jr-(!eist 
Kirr/w ;  Heidelberg  Catechism  goes  its  free  course  again,  ^lay 
H')th;  and  one  liaron  Keck*  is  appointed  Commissioner,  from 
tlie  Corpus  Ennifji-firontiii,  to  Heidell>n-g;  who  continues  rigor- 
ously inspecting  Church  matters  there  for  a  considerable  time, 
much  to  the  grief  of  Highness  and  Jesuits,  till  he  can  report 
that  all  is  as  it  should  be  on  that  head.  Karl  Philip  felt  so 
disgusted  with  these  results,  he  removed  his  Court,  that  same 
year,  to  Mannheim  ;  quitted  Heidelberg ;  to  the  discourage- 
ment and  visible  decay  of  the  place ;  and,  in  spite  of  humble 
jietitions  and  remonstrances,  never  would  return ;  neither  he 
nor  those  that  followed  him  would  shift  from  Slannheim  again, 
to  this  day. 

Prussi<ni  Majesty  has  displeased  the  Kaiser  and  the  King 

of  Poland. 

Friedrieh  Wilhelm's  praises  from  the  Protestant  public  were 
great,  on  this  occasion.  Nor  can  we,  who  lie  much  farther 
from  it  in  every  sense,  refuse  him  some  grin  of  approval.  Act, 
and  manner  of  doing  the  act,  are  creditably  of  a  piece  with 
Friedrieh  Wilhelm ;  physiognomic  of  the  rugged  veracious 
man.  It  is  one  of  several  such  acts  done  by  him :  for  it  was 
>  Michaelis,  ii.  95;  Putter,  ii.  384,  390;  Buohholz,  pp.  61-63. 


404  HIS  APPKEXTICESIIIP,   J^IKST  STAGE.      H.-'kIV. 

171;>-1T2.{. 

a  duty  apt  to  recur  in  Germany,  in  his  day.  This  duty  Fried, 
rich  Wilhelm,  a  solid  Protestant  after  his  sort,  and  convinced 
of  the  "nothingness  and  nonsensicality  {Uugnind  und  Absur- 
ditcit)  of  Papistry,"  was  always  honorably  ])r(jnii)t  to  do.  There 
is  an  honest  bacon-and-greens  conscience  in  the  man ;  almost 
the  one  conscience  you  can  find  in  any  royal  man  of  that  day. 
Promi»tly,  without  tremulous  counting  of  costs,  he  always 
starts  up,  solid  as  oak,  on  the  occurrence  of  such  a  thing,  and 
says,  "That  is  unjust;  contrary  to  the  Treaty  of  Westjjhalia ; 
you  will  have  to  put  down  that!''  —  And  if  words  avail  not, 
his  jilan  is  always  the  same :  Claj)  a  similar  thumbscrew, 
jjressure  equitably  calculated,  on  the  Catholics  of  Prussia ; 
these  can  comphiin  to  their  Po})es  and  Jesuit  Dignitaries: 
these  are  under  thumbscrew  till  the  Protestant  jiressure  be 
removed.  Which  always  did  rectify  the  matter  in  a  little  time. 
One  other  of  tliese  instances,  that  of  tlu'  Salzburg  Protestants, 
the  last  such  instance,  as  this  of  Heidelberg  w^as  the  first,  will 
by  and  by  claim  notice  from  us. 

It  is  very  observable,  how  Friedri<h  Willielm,  hating  rpiar- 
rels,  was  ever  ready  to  turn  out  for  quarrel  on  such  an  occa«- 
sion  ;  though  otherwise  consj)icuously  a  King  who  stayed  well 
at  home,  looking  after  his  own  affairs  ;  meddling  witli  no  neigh- 
bor that  would  l>e  at  peace  with  him.  This  properly  is  Fried- 
rich  Wilhelm's  "  si)here  of  political  activity "  among  his 
contemporaries  ;  this  small  quasi-domestic  sj)here,  of  forbid- 
ding injury  to  Protestants.  A  most  small  sphere,  but  then  a 
genuine  one  :  nor  did  he  seek  even  this,  had  it  not  forced  itself 
upon  him.  And  truly  we  might  ask,  What  has  become  of 
the  other  more  considerable  "  sjjheres  "  in  that  epoch  ?  The 
supremest  loud-trumpeting  "  political  activities  "  which  then 
filled  the  world  and  its  newspapers,  what  has  the  upshot  of 
them  universally  been  ?  Zero,  and  oblivion  ;  no  other.  While 
this  poor  Friedrich-Wilhelm  sphere  is  perhaps  still  a  countable 
quantity.  Wise  is  he  who  stays  well  at  home,  and  does  the 
duty  he  finds  lying  there  !  — 

Great  favor  from  the  Protestant  public  :  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  his  Majesty  had  given  offence  in  high  places.  What 
help  for  it  ?    The  thing  was  a  point  of  conscience  with  him  ; 


Chap.  X.      '      THE   HEIDELBERG    PKOTESTANTS.  405 

1720. 

natural  to  tlie  surly  Royal  Overseer,  going  his  rounds  in  the 
world,  stick  in  hand  !  However,  the  Kaiser  was  altogether 
gloomy  of  brow  at  such  disobedience.  A  Kaiser  uni'riendly 
to  Friedrich  Wilhelra  :  witness  that  of  the  Ritter-Dienst  (our 
unreasonable  ]\Iagdeburg  Kitters,  countenanced  by  him,  on 
such  terms,  in  such  style  too),  and  other  offensive  instances 
that  could  be  given.  Perhaps  the  Kaiser  will  not  always  con- 
tinue gloomy  of  brow ;  perhaps  the  thoughts  of  the  Imperial 
breast  may  alter,  on  our  behalf  or  his  own,  one  day  ?  — 

Nor  could  King  August  the  Physically  Strong  be  glad  to 
see  his  "  Director  "  function  virtually  superseded,  in  this  tri- 
umphant way.  A  year  or  two  ago,  Friedrich  Willielm  had, 
with  the  due  cautions  and  politic  reserves,  inquired  of  the 
Corj)us  JCiur/ifjrllrorum,  "  If  they  thought  the  present  Director- 
ship (that  of  August  the  I'hysically  Strong)  a  good  one?"  and 
'•  Whether  he,  Friedrich  Wilhelm,  ought  not  perhaps  himself 
to  be  Director?"  —  To  which,  though  the  answer  was  clear  as 
noonday,  this  poor  Corpus  had  only  mumbled  some  ''  Quleta 
non  movere,'^  or  other  wise-foolish  saw  ;  and  helplessly  shrugged 
its  shoulders.^  But  King  August  himself,  —  though  a  jovial 
social  kind  of  animal,  quite  otherwise  occupied  in  the  world; 
busy  producing  his  three  hundred  and  fifty-four  Bastards  there, 
and  not  careful  of  Church  matters  at  all,  —  had  expressed  his 
indignant  surprise.  And  now,  it  would  seem  nevertheless, 
though  the  title  remains  where  it  was,  the  function  has  fallen 
to  another,  who  actually  does  it :  a  thing  to  provoke  compari- 
sons in  the  public. 

Clement,  the  Hungarian  forger,  vender  of  false  state-secrets, 
is  well  hanged ;  went  to  the  gallows  (18th  April,  1720)  with 
much  circumstance,  just  two  days  before  that  Heidelberg 
Church  was  got  reopened.  But  the  suspicions  sown  by 
Clement  cannot  quite  be  abolished  by  the  hanging  of  him  : 
Forger   indisputably;    but   who  knows    whether  he  had   not 

1  1717-1719,  when  August's  Kurprinz,  Heir-Apparent,  likewise  declared 
himself  Papist,  to  the  horror  ami  astonishment  of  poor  Saxonv,  and  wedded 
tlie  late  Kaiser  Joseph's  I)au«rhter  : — not  to  Father  August's  horror;  who 
was  steering  towards  "popularity  in  Poland,"  "hereditary  Polish  Crown," 
&c.  with  the  young  man.    (Buchholz,  i.  53-56.) 


406  Ills  APPRENTICESHIP,  FIRST  STAGE.     Book  IV. 

17i;J-1723. 

something  of  fact  for  basis  ?  What  with  Clement,  what  witli 
this  Heidelberg  business,  the  Court  of  Berlin  has  fallen  wrong 
with  Dresden,  with  Vienna  itself,  and  important  clouds  have 
risen. 

There  is  an  absurd  Flame  of  War,  blown  out  bij  Admiral 
Byntj;  and  a*new  Man  of  Genius  announces  himself  to 
the  dim  Populations. 

The  poor  Kaiser  himself  is  otherwise  in  trouble  of  his  own, 
at  this  time.  The  Spaniards  and  he  have  fallen  out,  in  spite 
of  Utrecht  Treaty  and  Jxastadt  ditto  ;  the  S])aniards  luive  taken 
Sicily  from  him ;  and  ])recisely  in  those  days  while  Karl 
Philip  took  to  shutting  up  the  Hell if/c-G cist  Church  at  Heidel- 
berg, there  was,  loud  enuugh  in  all  the  Newspapers,  silent 
as  it  now  is,  a  "Siege  of  Messina"  going  on;  Imperial  and 
I'iedmontese  troops  doing  duty  by  land.  Admiral  r>yng  still 
more  effectively  by  sea,  for  the  purpose  of  getting  Sicily 
back.  Which  was  achieved  by  and  by,  though  at  an  extremely 
languid  pace.*  One  of  the  most  tedious  Sieges ;  one  of 
the  paltriest  languid  Wars  (of  extreme  virulence  and  extreme 
feebleness,  neither  pai-ty  having  any  cash  left),  and  for  an 
object  which  could  not  be  excelled  in  insignificance.  Object 
highly  interesting  to  Kaiser  Karl  VI.  and  Elizabeth  Farnese 
Termagant  Queen  of  Sj^ain.  These  two  were  red,  or  even  were 
pale,  with  interest  in  it ;  and  to  the  rest  of  Adam's  Posterity 
it  was  not  intrinsically  worth  an  ounce  of  guni^owder,  many 
tons  of  that  and  of  better  commodities  as  they  had  to  spend 
upon  it.  True,  the  Spanish  Navy  got  well  lamed  in  the  busi- 
ness ;  Spanish  Fleet  blown  mostly  to  destruction,  —  "  Eoads 
of  IMessina,  10th  August,  1718,"  by  the  dexterous  Byng  (a 
creditable  handy  figure  both  in  Peace  and  War)   and  his  con- 

^  Byng's  Sea-fight,  10th  August,  1718  (Camphell's  Lives  of  the  Admirals,  iii. 
468)  ;  whereupon  the  Spaniards,  who  had  hardly  yet  conipleted  their  capture 
of  Messina,  are  besieged  in  it;  —  29th  October,  1719,  Messina  retaken  (this  is 
the  "  Siege  of  Messina") :  P>bruary,  1720,  Peace  is  clapt  np  (the  chief  article, 
that  Alberoni  shall  I'C  jnuked  away),  and  a  "Congress  of  Cambrai "  is  to 
meet,  and  settle  everj-thing. 


Chap.  X.      *  SIEGE  OF  MESSINA.  407 

10th  Aug.  1718. 

siderable  Sea-fight  there  :  — if  that  was  an  object  to  Spain  or 
mankind,  that  was  accomplished.  But  the  "War,"  except 
that  many  men  Avere  killed  in  it,  and  much  vain  babble  was 
uttered  upon  it,  ranks  otherwise  with  that  of  Don  Quixote, 
-  for  conquest  of  the  enchanted  Helmet  of  Mambrino,  Avhich 
when  looked  into  proved  to  be  a  Barber's  Basin. 

Congress  of  Cambrai,  and  other  high  Gatherings  and  convul- 
sive Doings,  which  all  proved  futile,  and  look  almost  like  Lap- 
land witchcraft  now  to  us,  will  have  to  follow  this  futility  of 
a  )Var.  It  is  the  first  of  a  long  series  of  enchanted  adven- 
tures, on  which  Kaiser  Karl,  —  duelling  with  that  Spanish 
Virago,  Satan's  Invisible  World  in  the  rear  of  her,  —  has  now 
embarked,  to  the  woe  of  mankind,  for  the  rest  of  his  life.  The 
first  of  those  terrifico-ludicrous  paroxysms  of  crisis  into  which 
he  throws  the  European  Universe  ;  he  with  liis  Enchanted 
Barber's-Basin  enterprises  ;  —  as  perhaps  was  fit  enough,  in  an 
epoch  presided  over  by  the  Nightmares.  Congress  of  Cambrai 
is  to  follow  ;  and  much  else  equally  spectral.  About  all  which 
there  will  be  enough  to  say  anon  !  For  it  was  a  fearful  opera- 
tion, though  a  ludicrous  one,  this  of  the  poor  Kaiser ;  and  it 
tormented  not  the  big  Nations  only,  and  threw  an  absurd 
Europe  into  paroxysm  after  paroxysm ;  but  it  whirled  up,  in 
its  wide-sweeping  skirts,  our  little  Fritz  and  his  Sister,  and 
almost  dashed  the  lives  out  of  them,  as  we  shall  see !  Which 
last  is  perhaps  the  one  claim  it  now  has  to  a  cursory  mention 
from  mankind. 

Byng's  Sea-fight,  done  with  due  dexterity  of  manoenvring, 
and  then  with  due  emphasis  of  broadsiding,  decisive  of  that 
absurd  War,  and  almost  the  one  creditable  action  in  it,  dates 
itself  10th  August,  1718.  And  about  three  months  later,  on 
the  mimic  stage  at  Paris  there  came  out  a  piece,  (Edipe  the 
title  of  it,^  by  one  Francois  Arouet,  a  young  gentleman  about 
twenty -two ;  and  had  such  a  run  as  seldom  was  ;  —  apprising 
the  French  Populations  that,  to  all  appearance,  a.  new  man  of 
genius  had  appeared  among  them  (not  intimating  what  work 
he  would  do") ;  and  greatly  angering  old  M.  Arouet  of  the 
Chamber  of  Accounts  ;  who  thereby  found  his  Son  as  good  as 

1  18th  November,  171& 


408  Ills  AIM'KKN  rilKSllir.    FIUST  stage.       H'h'k  IV. 

171.J-1723. 

cast  into  the  whirlpools,  and  a  solid  Law-career  thenceforth  im- 
possible for  the  young  fool.  — The  name  of  that  "M.  Arouet 
junior"  clianges  itself,  some  years  hence,  into  M.  de  Voltaire  ; 
under  which  latter  designation  he  will  conspicuously  reappear 
in  this  Narrative. 

And  now  we  Avill  go  to  our  little  Crown-Prince  again  ;  — 
ignorant,  he,  of  all  this  tliat  is  mounting  up  in  the  distance, 
and  that  it  will  envelop  liira  one  day. 


CHAPTER  XL 
ON  Tire  CRowx-rnixrE's  progress  ix  iiis  sriiooLixr,. 

WiLHKLMixA  says,'  her  Brotlier  was  *'slow"  in  learning: 
we  may  presume,  slie  means  idle,  volatile,  not  always  promi)t 
in  fixing  his  attention  to  what  did  not  interest  him.  More- 
over, he  was  often  weakly  in  health,  as  she  herself  adds  ; 
so  that  exertion  was  not  recommendable  for  him.  Herr  von 
Loen  (a  witty  Prussian  UflBcial,  and  famed  man-of-letters  once, 
though  forgotten  now)  testifii'S  expressly  tliat  the  Boy  wiis  of 
bright  i)arts,  and  that  he  matle  rapid  progress.  "  The  Crown- 
Prince  manifests  in  this  tender  age  [his  seventh  year]  an 
uncommon  capacity  ;  nay  we  may  say,  something  quite  ex- 
traordinary {eticas  ganz  Awsserordentliclws).  He  is  a  most 
alert  and  vivacious  Prince  ;  he  has  fine  and  sprightly  man- 
ners ;  and  shows  a  certain  kindly  sociality,  and  so  affection- 
ate a  disposition  that  all  things  may  be  hoped  of  him.  The 
French  Latly  who  [under  RoucouUes]  has  had  charge  of  his 
learning  hitherto,  cannot  speak  of  him  without  enthusiasm. 
*  C^est  un  esprit  a/if/e/i'/ue  (a  little  angel),'  she  is  wont  to  say. 
He  takes  up,  and  learns,  whatever  is  put  before  him,  with  the 
greatest  facility."  ^ 

For  the  rest,  that  Friedrich  Wilhelm's  intentions  and  Rhadar 

1  M€moires,  i   22. 

2  You  Loen,  Kleine  Schriften,  ii.  27  (as  cited  iu  Rodenbeck,  No.  iv.  479). 


Chap.  XL     «     HIS  PROGRESS  IN  SCHOOLING.  -109 

17i;J-1723. 

mantLine  regulations,  in  regard  to  him,  were  fulfilled  in  every 
point,  we  will  by  no  means  affirm.  Rules  of  such  exceeding 
preciseuess,  if  grounded  here  and  there  only  on  the  sic-volo, 
how  could  they  be  always  kept,  except  on  the  surface  and  to 
the  eye  merely  ?  The  good  Duhan,  diligent  to  open  his  pupil's 
mind,  and  give  Nature  fair-play,  had  practically  found  it  in- 
expedient to  tie  him  too  rigorously  to  the  arbitrary  formal 
departments  where  no  natural  curiosity,  but  only  order  from 
without,  urges  the  ingenious  pupil.  What  maximum  strict- 
ness in  school-drill  there  can  have  been,  we  may  infer  from 
one  thing,  were  there  no  other:  the  ingenious  Pupil's  mode  of 
spelliiKj.  Fritz  learned  to  write  a  fine,  free-flowing,  rapid  and 
legible  business-hand ;  "  Arithmetic  "  too,  "  Geography,"  and 
many  other  Useful  Knowledges  that  had  some  geniality  of 
character,  or  attractiveness  in  practice,  were  among  his  acqui- 
sitions ;  much,  very  much  he  learned  in  tlie  course  of  his  life  ; 
but  to  sjicll,  much  more  to  punctuate,  and  subdue  the  higher 
mysteries  of  Grammar  to  himself,  was  always  an  unachievable 
perfection.  He  did  improve  somewhat  in  after  life  ;  but  here 
is  the  length  to  which  he  had  carried  that  necessary  art  in  the 
course  of  nine  years'  exertion,  under  Duhan  and  the  subsidiary 
preceptors  ;  it  is  in  the  following  words  and  alphabetic  letters 
that  he  gratefully  bids  Duhan  farewell,  —  who  surely  cannot 
have  been  a  very  strict  drill-sergeant  in  the  arbitrary  branches 
of  schooling  ! 

"  ]\Ion  cher  Duhan  Je  Vous  promais  (promets)  que  quand 
j'aurez  (fa lira i)  mon  propre  argent  en  main,  je  Vous  donnerez 
(donnerai)  enuelement  {annucUeiTient)  2400  ecu  {ecus)  par  an, 
et  je  vous  aimerais  {a'uiierai)  toujour  encor  (toujours  encore)  un 
pen  plus  q'asteure  {qu'a  cette  heure)  s'il  me  Test  {m'est)  posible 
{possible)." 

"  My  dear  Duhan,  —  I  promise  to  you,  that  when  I  shall 
have  my  money  in  my  own  hands,  I  will  give  you  annually 
2400  crowns  [say  £350]  everij  year  ;  and  that  I  will  love  you 
always  even  a  little  more  than  at  present,  if  that  be  possible. 

"Frideric  P.R.  [Prince-Royal]." 

"  Potsdam,  le  20  de  juin,  1727."  ^ 

1  Preuss,  i.  22. 


410  HIS  APPRENTICESHIP,  FIRST  STAGE.      n.KiK  IV. 

i7i;;-n:>3. 

Tho  Document  has  otherwise  its  beauty;  but  such  is  the 
spcllinj^  of  it.  In  fact  his  Grammar,  as  h<*  would  liimsclf  now 
and  then  regretfully  iliseern,  in  riper  years,  with  souu*  transient 
attempt  or  resolution  to  remedy  or  help  it,  seems  to  have  come 
mainly  by  nature;  so  likewise  his  "  .s7/////,s- "  both  in  French 
and  German,  —  a  very  fair  style,  too,  in  the  former  dialect :  — 
but  as  to  his  si)elling,  let  him  try  as  he  liked,  he  never  came 
within  sight  of  perfection. 

The  tilings  ordered  with  suth  rigorous  minuteness,  if  but 
arbitrary  things,  were  apt  to  be  neglected  ;  the  things  for- 
bidden, especially  in  the  like  case,  were  apt  to  become  doubly 
tempting.  It  aj)pears,  the  prohibition  of  Latin  gave  rise  to 
various  attempts,  on  the  jiart  of  Friedrich,  to  attain  that  de- 
sirable Language.  Secret  lessons,  not  from  Duhan,  but  no 
doubt  with  Dulian's  connivance,  were  from  time>to  time  under- 
taken with  this  view:  once,  it  is  recorded,  the  vigilant  Fried- 
rich  Willielni,  going  his  rounds,  came  upon  Fritz  and  one  of 
his  Preceptors  (not  Duhan  but  a  sul)altern)  lu'tually  engaged 
in  this  illicit  employnuMit.  Friedrich  himself  was  wont  to 
relate  this  anecdote  in  after  life.*  They  had  Latin  books, 
dictionaries,  grammars  on  the  tiible,  all  the  contraband  appa- 
ratus; Imsy  with  it  there,  like  a  pair  of  coiners  taken  in  the 
fact.  Among  other  liooks  was  a  copy  of  the  (iolden  liull  of 
Kaiser  Karl  IV.,  —  Auren  Bulla,  from  the  little  golden  biilhts 
or  pellets  hung  to  it,  —  by  which  sublime  Document,  as  per- 
haps we  hinted  long  ago,  certain  so-called  Fundamental  Con- 
stitutions, or  at  least  formalities  and  solemn  practices,  method 
of  election,  rule  of  precedence,  and  the  like,  of  the  Holy 
Roman  Empire,  had  at  last  been  settled  on  a  sure  footing,  by 
that  busy  little  Kaiser,  some  three  hundred  and  fifty  years 
before  ;  a  Document  venerable  almost  next  to  the  Bible  in 
Friedrich  Wilhelm's  loyal  eyes.  "  'NYliat  is  this  ;  what  are 
you  venturing  upon  here  ? "  exclaims  Paternal  Vigilance,  in 
im  astonished  dangerous  tone.  "' Utro  Mnjistdt,  ich  expllcire 
dem  Priiizen  Anream  Bullam,''  exclaimed  the  trembling  peda- 
gogue :   "  Your  Majesty,  I  am  explaining  Aurea  Bulla  [Golden 

1  Biischiug,  Beltrdge  zu  der  Lebensgeschichte  denhcurdiger  Personen,  v  33. 
Preus3,  i.  24. 


Chap.  XI.      .     HIS  PROGRESS  IN   SCHOOLING.  411 

I7i;^-i72;j. 

Bull]  to  the  Priuce  !"  — «  Dog,  I  will  Golden-Bull  you  !"  said 
his  Majesty,  flourishing  his  rattan,  " Lh  will  dirk,  Sehurke, 
be-aurcam-hullani !  '^  Avhich  sent  the  terrified  wretch  off  at  the 
top  of  his  speed,  and  ended  the  Latin  for  that  time.^ 

Fiioilrich's  Latin  could  never  come  to  much,  under  these 
impediments.  But  he  retained  some  smatterings  of  it  in 
mature  life ;  and  was  rather  fond  of  producing  his  classical 
scraps,  —  often  in  an  altogether  mouldy,  and  indeed  hitherto 
inexplicable  condition.  "  De  gustihus  iwn  est  dhputandus," 
''  Bcati possedetifes,^'  "  Comjnlle  intrare,''  "  Beatns  pauperes  spi- 
r'ltus ; "  tlie  meaning  of  these  can  be  guessed  :  but  "  Tot  verbas 
tot  spondera,''  for  example, — what  can  any  commentator  make 
of  that  ?  "  Fe.sfina  Icnte,"'  "  Domimis  vobiscum,'"  "  Flectnvius 
ycnud,'"'  "  Quod  bene  notandum  ;^^  these  phrases  too,  and  some 
three  or  four  others  of  the  like,  have  been  riddled  from  his 
Writings  by  diligent  men:-  ^' 0  tempora,  0  mores. '  You  see 
I  don't  forget  my  Latin,"  writes  he  once. 

The  worst  fruit  of  these  contraband  operations  was,  that 
they  involved  the  Boy  in  clandestine  practices,  secret  disobe- 
diences, apt  to  be  found  out  from  time  to  time,  and  tended  to 
alienate  his  Father  from  him.  Of  which  sad  mutual  humor 
we  already  tiuil  traces  in  that  early  "Wusterhausen  Document : 
"  Not  to  be  so  dirty,"  says  the  reproving  Father.  And  the 
Boy  does  not  take  to  hunting  at  all,  likes  verses,  story-books, 
flute-playing  better;  seems  to  be  of  effeminate  tendencies,  an 
cffeminirter  Kerl;  affects  French  modes,  combs  out  his  hair 
like  a  cockatoo,  the  foolish  French  fop,  instead  of  conforming 
to  the  Army-regulation,  which  prescribes  close-cropping  and 
a  club ! 

This  latter  grievance  Friedrich  Wilhelm  decided,  at  last, 
to  abate,  and  have  done  with ;  this,  for  one.  It  is  an  authentic 
fact,  though  not  dated,  —  dating  perhaps  from  about  Fritz's 
fifteenth  year.  '•  Fritz  is  a  Querpfeifer  und  Poet,^^  not  a  Sol- 
dier I  would  his  indignant  Father  growl ;  looking  at  those 
foreign  effeminate  waj's  of  his.     Querpfeife,  that  is   simply 

1  Forster,  i.  356. 

2  Preuss  (i.  24)  furnishes  the  whole  stock  of  them. 


412  HIS  APPRENTICESHIP,   FIPvST  STAflE.      B-'ok  IV. 

lTi;i-1723. 

"German-flute,"  ^^  Cross-pipe  ^^  {ov  fife  of  any  kind,  lor  we 
English  have  thriftily  made  two  useful  words  out  ol  the 
Dt'utsch  root)  ;  *'  Cross-pipe,"  being  held  arross  the  mouth  hori- 
zontally. Worthless  employment,  if  you  are  not  born  to  be 
of  the  regimental  band !  thinks  Friedrich  Wilhelm.  Fritz  is 
Cflcbrated,  too,  for  his  fine  foot ;  a  dapper  little  fellow,  alto- 
gether i)retty  in  the  eyes  of  simjde  female  courtiers,  with  his 
blond  locks  combed  out  at  the  temples,  with  his  bright  eyes, 
sharp  wit,  and  sparkling  caitricious  ways.  The  cockatoo  locks, 
these  at  least  we  will  abate !  decides  the  Paternal  mind. 

And  so,  unexpectedly,  Friedrich  Wilhelm  has  commanded 
these  bright  locks,  as  contrary  to  military  fashion,  of  which 
Fritz  ha.s  now  unworthily  the  honor  of  being  a  specimen,  to  be 
ruthlessly  shorn  away.  Inexorable  :  the  Hof-Chirurgiui  (Court- 
Surgeon,  of  the  nature  of  Barber-Surgeon),  witJi  si-issors  and 
comb,  is  here  ;  ruthless  Father  standing  by.  Crop  him,  my 
jolly  Barb(>r;  close  down  to  the  accurate  standard;  soaped 
club,  instead  of  flowing  locks;  we  suffer  no  exceptions  in  this 
military  de]>artment:  I  stand  here  till  it  is  done.  Poor  Fritz, 
they  say,  h:ul  tears  in  his  eyes  ;  Imt  what  help  in  tears?  Tho 
judicious  Chirurgus,  however,  proved  merciful.  The  judici«)us 
Chirurgus  struck  in  as  if  nothing  loath,  snack,  snack;  and 
made  a  great  show  of  dipping'.  Friedrich  Wilhelm  took  a 
newspaper  till  the  job  were  done  ;  the  judicious  Barber,  still 
making  a  great  show  of  work,  combed  back  rather  than  cut  olT 
these  Apollo  locks ;  did  Fritz  accurately  into  soaped  club,  to 
the  cursory  eye ;  but  left  him  capable  of  shaking  out  his  cheve- 
lure  again  on  occasion,  —  to  the  lasting  gratitude  of  Fritz,^ 

The  Noltcnius-and-Panzendorf  Drill-exercise. 

On  tlie  whole,  as  we  said,  a  youth  needs  gootl  assimilating 
power,  if  he  is  to  grow  in  this  world !  Noltenius  and  Panzen- 
dorf.  for  instance,  they  were  busy  "teaching  Friecb-ich  relig- 
ion." Rather  a  strange  operation  this  too,  if  we  were  to  look 
into  it.  We  will  not  look  too  closely.  Another  pair  of  excellent 
most  solemn  ibill-sergeants,  in  clerical  black  serge;  they  also  are 

1  Preuss,  i.  16. 


Chap.  XI.       '    HIS  PROGRESS  IN   SCHOOLING.  413 

1713-17-2;J. 

busy  instilling  dark  doctrines  into  the  bright  young  Boy,  so 
far  as  possible ;  but  do  not  seem  at  any  time  to  have  made  too 
deep  an  impression  on  him.  May  we  not  say  that,  in  matter 
of  religion  too,  Friedrich  was  but  ill-bested?  Enlightened 
Edict-of-Nantes  Protestantism,  a  cross  between  Bayle  and 
Calvin  :  that  was  but  inditi'erent  babe's-milk  to  the  little  crea- 
ture. Nor  could  Noltenius's  Catechism,  and  ponderous  drill- 
exercise  in  orthodox  theology,  much  inspire  a  clear  soul  with 
pieties,  and  tendencies  to  soar  Heavenward. 

Alas,  it  is  a  dreary  litter  indeed,  mere  wagon-load  on  wagon- 
load  of  shot-rubbish,  that  is  heaped  round  this  new  human 
plant,  by  Noltcuius  and  Company,  among  others.  A  wonder 
only  that  they  did  not  extinguish  all  Sense  of  the  Highest  in 
the  poor  young  soul,  and  leave  only  a  Sense  of  the  Dreariest 
and  Stujtidest.  But  a  hoalthy  human  soul  can  stand  a  great 
deal.  The  health}'  soul  shakes  off,  in  an  unexpectedly  victo- 
rious manner,  immense  masses  of  dry  rubbish  that  have  been 
shot  upon  it  by  its  assiduous  pedagogues  and  professors. 
\\  hat  would  become  of  any  of  us  otherwise  !  Duhan,  opening 
the  young  soul,  by  such  modest  gift  as  Duliau  had,  to  recog- 
nizi'  black  from  white  a  little,  in  this  embroiled  high  Universe, 
is  probably  an  exception  in  some  small  measure.  But,  Duhan 
exceptt'd,  it  may  be  said  to  have  been  in  spite  of  most  of  his 
teachers,  and  their  diligent  endeavors,  that  Friedrich  did 
acquire  some  human  piety  ;  kept  the  sense  of  truth  alive  in  his 
mind ;  kneu;  in  whatever  words  he  phrased  it,  the  divine 
eternal  nature  of  Dut}' ;  and  managed,  in  the  muddiest  element 
and  most  eclipsed  Age  ever  known,  to  steer  by  the  heavenly 
loadstars  and  (so  we  must  candidly  term  it)  to  follow  God's  Law, 
in  some  measui-e,  with  or  without  Xoltenius  for  company. 

Noltenius's  Catechism,  or  ghostly  -  Drill-manual  for  Fritz, 
at  least  the  Catechism  he  had  plied  Wilhelmina  with,  which 
no  doubt  was  the  same,  is  still  extant.^  A  very  abstruse 
Piece ;  orthodox  Lutheran-Calvinist,  all  proved  from  Scrip- 
ture ;  giving  what  account  it  can  of  this  unfathomable  Uni- 
verse, to  the  young  mind.  To  modern  Prussians  it  by  no 
means  shines  as  the  indubitablest  Theory  of  the  Universe. 
^  Preuss,  i.  15  ;  —  specimens  of  it  in  Rodenbeck. 


411  JIIS  APPRENTICESHIP,  FIRST  STAGE.      Book  IV. 

17i;J-172a. 

Indignant  modern  Prussians  produce  excerpts  from  it,  of  an 
abstruse  nature ;  and  endeavor  to  deduce  therefrom  some  of 
Friedrich's  aberrations  in  matters  of  religion,  which  became 
notorious  enough  by  and  by.  Alas,  I  fear,  it  would  not  have 
been  easy,  even  for  the  modern  Prussian,  to  produce  a  jjcrfect 
Catechism  for  the  use  of  Friedi'ich;  this  Universe  still  con- 
tinues a  little  abstruse  !  * 

And  there  is  another  deeper  thing  to  be  remarked:  the 
notion  of  ''  teaching  "  religion,  in  the  way  of  drill-exercise  ; 
which  is  a  very  strange  notion,  though  a  common  one,  and  not 
peculiar  to  Noltenius  and  Friedrich  Wilhelm.  Piety  to  God, 
the  nobleness  that  inspires  a  human  soul  to  struggle  Heaven- 
ward, cannot  be  ''  taught "  by  the  most  exquisite  catechisms, 
or  the  most  industrious  preachings  and  drillings.  No  ;  alas, 
no.  Only  by  far  other  methods, — chiefly  by  silent  continual 
Example,  silently  waiting  for  the  favorable  mood  and  moment, 
and  aided  then  by  a  kind  of  miracle,  well  enough  named  "  the 
grace  of  God," — can  that  sacred  contagion  pass  from  soul 
into  soul.  How  much  beyond  whole  Libraries  of  orthodox 
Theology  is,  sometimes,  the  mute  action,  the  unconscious 
look  of  a  father,  of  a  mother,  who  had  in  them  *'  Devoutness, 
pious  Nobleness  "  !  In  whom  the  young  soul,  not  unobservant, 
though  not  consciously  observing,  came  at  length  to  rec- 
ognize it ;  to  read  it,  in  this  irrefragable  manner :  a  seed 
planted  thenceforth  in  the  centre  of  his  holiest  affections  for- 
evermore ! 

Noltenius  wore  black  serge ;  kept  the  corners  of  his  mouth 
well  down ;  and  had  written  a  Catechism  of  repute  ;  but  I 
know  not  that  Noltenius  carried  much  seed  of  living  piety 
about  with  him ;  much  affection  from,  or  for,  young  Fritz  he 
coidd  not  well  carrj-.  On  the  whole,  it  is  a  bad  outlook  on 
the  religious  side  ;  and  except  in  Apprenticeship  to  the  rugged 
and  as  yet  repulsive  Honesties  of  Friedrich  Wilhelm,  I  see  no 
good  element  in  it.  Bayle-Calvin,  with  Noltenius  and  Cate- 
chisms of  repute :  there  is  no  "  religion  "  to  be  had  for  a  little 
Fritz  out  of  all  that.  Endless  Doubt  will  be  provided  for  him 
out  of  all  that,  probably  disbelief  of  all  that ;  —  and,  on  the 
whole,  if  any  form  at  all,  a  very  scraggy  form  of  moral  exist- 


Chap  XI.       '  HIS  PHOGRESS  IN  SCHOOLING.  415 

1713-17'23. 

ence  ;  from  -wliicli  the  Highest  shall  be  hopelessly  absent ;  and 
in  which  anything  High,  anything  not  Low  and  Lying,  will 
have  double  merit. 

It  is  indeed  amazing  what  quantities  and  kinds  of  extinct 
ideas  apply  for  belief,  sometimes  in  a  menacing  manner,  to 
the  poor  mind  of  man,  and  poor  mind  of  child,  in  these  days. 
They  come  bullying  in  upon  him,  in  masses,  as  if  they  were 
quite  living  ideas ;  ideas  of  a  dreadfully  indispensable  nature, 
the  evident  counterpart,  and  salutary  interpretation,  of  Facts 
round  him,  wliich,  it  is  promised  the  poor  young  creature,  he 
sJiall  recognize  to  correspond  with  them,  one  day.  At  which 
"correspondence,''  when  the  Facts  are  once  well  recognized, 
he  lias  at  last  to  ask  himself  witli  amazement,  "Did  I  ever 
recognize  it,  then  ?  "  Whereby  come  results  incalculable  ; 
not  good  results  any  of  them ;  —  some  of  them  unspeakably 
bad  !  The  case  of  Crowu-l'rince  Friedrich  in  IJerlin  is  not 
singidar ;  all  cities  and  places  can  still  show  the  like.  And 
when  it  will  end,  is  not  yet  clear.  But  that  it  ever  should 
have  begun,  will  one  day  be  the  astonishment.  As  if  the 
divinest  function  of  a  human  being  were  not  even  that  of 
l)elieving;  of  discriminating,  with  his  God-given  intellect, 
what  is  from  what  is  not;  and  as  if  the  point  were,  to  render 
that  either  an  impossible  function,  or  else  what  we  must  sor- 
rowfully call  a  revolutionary,  rebellious  and  mutinous  one. 
O  Noltenius,  0  Pauzendorf,  do  for  pity's  sake  take  away  your 
Catechetical  ware  ;  and  say  either  nothing  to  the  poor  young 
Boy,  or  some  small  thing  he  will  find  to  be  beyond  doubt  when 
he  can  judge  of  it !  Fever,  pestilence,  are  bad  for  the  body ; 
but  Doubt,  impious  mutiny,  doubly  impious  hypocrisy,  are 
these  nothing  for  the  mind?  Wlio  would  go  about  inculcating 
Doubt,  unless  he  were  far  astray  indeed,  and  much  at  a  loss 
for  emplo}Tnent  ! 

But  the  sorest  fact  in  Friedrich's  schooling,  the  sorest,  for 
the  present,  though  it  ultimately  proved  perhaps  the  most 
beneficent  one,  being  well  dealt  with  by  the  young  soul,  and 
\\o\)\\  subdued  to  his  higher  uses,  remains  still  to  be  set  forth. 
"Which  will  be  a  lonsr  business,  first  and  last  I 


416  HIS    Al'l'KENTICESIIIP,   FIRST  STAGE.      R<>ok  IV. 

17i;i-17:JJ. 


CU-VrTEU    XI I. 
cnowN-rKiN<  i:  fall.s  ixto  pisfavou  with  tai-a. 

TiiosK  vivacities  of  young  Fritz,  his  taste  for  music,  finery, 
tlntsc  furtive  excursions  into  the  domain  of  Latin  and  forbid- 
den things,  were  (li.stai>teful  and  inconipreht-nsibici  to  Frit-dricii 
Wilhelm  :  Where  can  such  things  end  '!  Tlu-y  begin  in  diso- 
iKidirnce  and  intohM-abk*  jicrversity  ;  they  will  be  the  ruin  of 
Prussia  and  of  Fritz  !  —  Here,  in  faet, ha.s  a  great  sorrow  ristn. 
We  perceive  the  first  small  cracks  of  incurable  divisions  in 
the  royal  household;  the  breaking  out  of  fountains  of  bitter- 
ness, whii'h  by  and  by  spread  wide  enough.  A  young  sprightly, 
capricious  and  viviicious  Boy,  inclined  to  self-will,  had  it  bt-en 
IH-rniitted;  developing  himself  into  foreign  tastes,  into  French 
airs  and  ways;  very  ill  seen  by  the  heavy-footed  practical 
Germanic  Majesty. 

The  beginnings  of  this  sail  discrepancy  are  traceable  from 
Friedrich's  sixth  or  seventh  year :  "  Not  so  dirty,  lioy ! " 
Aiid  there  could  be  no  lack  of  growth  in  the  mutual  ill-humor, 
while  the  lioy  himself  continued  growing ;  enlarging  in  bulk 
and  in  activity  of  his  own.  Plenty  of  new  children  come,  to 
divide  our  regard  withal,  and  more  are, coming;  five  new 
Princesses,  wise  little  Ulrique  the  youngest  of  them  (named 
of  Sweden  and  the  happy  Swedish  Treaty),  whom  we  love 
much  for  her  grave  staid  ways.  Nay,  next  after  Ulrique 
comes  even  a  new  Prince  ;  August  Wilhelm,  ten  j-ears  younger 
than  Friedrich  ;  and  is  growing  up  much  more  according  to 
the  paternal  heart.  Pretty  children,  all  of  them,  more  or 
less  ;  and  towardly,  and  comfortable  to  a  Father ;  —  and  the 
worst  of  them  a  paragon  of  beauty,  in  comparison  to  per- 
verse, clandestine,  disobedient  Fritz,  with  Lis  French  fopperies, 
flutings,  and  cockatoo  fashions  of  hair  !  — 


CiiAP.  XII.  IX   DISFAVOR  WITH   PAPA.  417 

17ia-172a. 

And  so  the  silent  divulsion,  silent  on  Fritz's  part,  exploding 
loud  enough  now  and  then  on  his  Father's  part,  goes  steadily 
on,  splitting  ever  wider  ;  new  offences  ever  superadding  them- 
selves. Till,  at  last,  the  rugged  Father  has  grown  to  hate  the 
son ;  and  longs,  with  sorrowful  indignation,  tliat  it  were  pos- 
sible to  make  August  Wilhelm  Crown-Prince  in  his  stead. 
This  Fritz  ought  to  fashion  himself  according  to  his  Father's 
pattt'rn,  a  well-meant  honest  pattern  ;  and  he  does  not !  Alas, 
your  jNIajesty,  it  cannot  be.  It  is  the  new  generation  come ; 
whicli  cannot  live  quite  as  the  old  one  did.  A  perennial  con- 
troversy in  human  life ;  coeval  with  the  genealogies  of  men. 
This  little  lioy  should  have  been  the  excellent  paternal  Maj- 
esty's exact  counterpart;  resembling  him  at  all  points,  "as 
a  little  sixpence  does  a  big  half-crown:"  but  we  jierceive  he 
cannot.  This  is  a  new  coin,  with  a  stamp  of  its  own.  A  sur- 
prising Friedrkh  (for  this  ;  and  may  prove  a  good  piece  yet ; 
but  will  never  be  the  half-crown  your  Majesty  requires  !  — 

Conceive  a  rugged  thick-sided  Squire  Western,  of  supreme 
degree,  —  for  this  Squire  Western  is  a  hot  Hohenzollern,  and 
wears  a  crown  royal ;  — conceive  such  a  burly  ne-plus-ultra  of 
a  Squire,  Avith  his  broad-based  rectitudes  and  surly  irrefraga- 
bilities ;  the  honest  German  instincts  of  the  man,  convictions 
certain  as  the  Fates,  but  capable  of  no  utterance,  or  next  to 
none,  in  words ;  and  that  he  produces  a  Son  who  takes  into 
Voltairism,  piping,  fiddling  and  belles-lettres,  with  apparently 
a  total  contempt  for  Grumkow  and  the  giant-regiment !  Sul- 
phurous rage,  in  gusts  or  in  lasting  tempests,  rising  from  a  fund 
of  just  implacability,  is  inevitable.     Such  as  we  shall  see. 

The  Mother,  as  mothers  will,  secretly  favors  Fritz ;  anxious 
to  screen  him  in  the  day  of  high-wind.  Withal  she  has  plans 
of  her  o"STn  in  regard  to  Fritz,  and  the  others  ;  being  a  lady 
of  many  plans.  That  of  the  "  Double-Marriage,"  for  ex- 
ample ;  of  marrying  her  Prince  and  Princess  to  a  Princess 
and  Prince  of  tlie  English-Hanoverian  House  ;  it  was  a 
pleasant  eligible  plan,  consented  to  by  Papa  and  the  other 
parties ;  but  when  it  came  to  be  i)erfected  by  treaty,  amid  the 


418  Ills  APPRENTICESHIP,   FIRST  STAGE.      n-'oK  IV 

I7i;i-i7a3. 

rul)s  of  oxtcrnal  and  intornal  politics,  what  new  amazing  dis- 
crepancies rose  upon  her  poor  chihlren  and  her  !  Fearfully 
aggravating  the  quarrel  of  Father  and  Son,  almost  to  the  fatal 
point.  Of  that  "  Double-Marriage,"  whirled  up  in  a  universe 
of  intriguing  dii)lomacies,  in  the  "skirts  of  the  Kaiser's  huge 
Spectre-llunt,"  as  we  have  called  it,  there  will  be  sad  things 
to  say  by  and  by. 

Plans  her  ^lajesty  has  ;  and  silently  a  will  of  her  own. 
She  loves  all  her  cliildn-n,  especially  Fritz,  and  would  so  love 
that  they  loved  her.  —  For  the  rest,  all  along,  Fritz  and  "\Vil- 
helmiiia  are  sure  allies.  We  perceive  they  have  fallen  into  a 
kind  of  cijdier-speech ;  *  they  communicate  with  one  another 
by  telegraphic  signs.  One  of  their  words,  "  liarjotin  (Stumpy)," 
whom  does  the  reader  think  it  designates  ?  I'apa  himself,  the 
Royal  ^lajpsty  of  Prussia,  Friedricli  ^Vilhebu'  I.,  he  to  his 
rebellious  children  is  tyrant  "Stumpy,"  and  no  better;  being 
indeed  short  of  stature,  ami  growing  ever  thicker,  and  surlier 
in  these  ]n-ovocati<ins  I  — 

Such  incurable  discrepancies  have  risen  in  the  Perlin  Pal- 
ace :  fountains  of  l)itterness  flowing  ever  wider,  till  they 
made  life  all  bitter  for  Son  and  for  Father  ;  necessitating  the 
proud  Son  to  liypocrisies  towards  his  terrible  Father,  which 
were  very  foreign  to  the  }»roud  youth,  had  there  been  any 
otlicr  resource.  But  there  was  none,  now  or  afterwards.  Even 
when  the  young  man,  driven  to  reflection  and  insight  by  intol- 
erable miseries,  had  begun  to  recognize  the  worth  of  his  surly 
Rhadamanthine  Father,  and  the  intrinsic  wisdom  of  much  that 
he  had  meant  with  him,  the  Father  hardly  ever  could,  or  could 
only  by  fits,  completely  recognize  the  Son's  worth.  Rugged 
suspicious  Papa  requires  always  to  be  humored,  cajoled,  even 
when  our  feeling  towards  him  is  genuine  and  loyal.  Fried- 
rich,  to  the  last,  we  can  perceive,  has  to  assume  masqueratle 
in  addressing  him,  in  writing  to  him,  —  and  in  spite  of  real 
love,  must  have  felt  it  a  relief  when  such  a  thing  was  over. 

That  is,  all  along,  a  sad  element  of  Friedrich's  education  ! 
Out  of  which  there  might  have  come  incalculable  damage  to 

1  Me  moires  de  Bareith,  i.  168. 


CiiAi>.  XIII.         RESULTS  OF   HIS   SCHOOLING.  419 

1713-1723. 

the  yoimg  man,  liad  his  natural  assimilative  powers,  to  extract 
beuefit  from  all  things,  been  less  considerable.  As  it  was,  he 
gained  self-help  from  it ;  gained  reticence,  the  power  to  keep 
Jiis  own  counsel ;  and  did  not  let  the  hypocrisy  take  hold  of 
him,  or  be  other  than  a  hateful  compulsory  masquerade.  At 
an  uncommonly  early  age,  he  stands  before  us  accomplished 
in  endurance,  for  one  thing;  a  very  bright  young  Stoic  of  his 
sort ;  silently  prepared  for  the  injustices  of  men  and  things. 
And  as  for  the  masquerade,  let  us  hope  it  was  essentially 
f(ju'ign  even  to  the  skin  of  fhe  man  !  The  reader  will  judge 
as  he  goes  on.  "t/e  n^ at  jamais  tronipe  personne  durant  ma  vie, 
I  have  never  deceived  anybody  during  my  life ;  still  less  will 
I  deceive  posterity,"  ^  writes  Friediicli  when  Lis  head  was  now 
grown  very  gray. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

RESULTS    OF   TnK    C'K(  iWX-rivIXCK's    SCHOOLING. 

Neithek  as  to  intellectual  culture,  in  Duhan's  special 
sphere,  and  with  all  Duhan's  good-will,  was  the  opportunity 
extremely  golden.  It  cannot  be  said  that  Friedrich,  who 
sjie/h  in  the  way  we  saw,  "  asteure  "  for  "  a  cette  heure"  has 
made  shining  acquisitions  on  the  literary  side.  However,  in 
the  long-run  it  becomes  clear,  his  intellect,  roving  on  devious 
courses,  or  plodding  along  the  prescribed  tram-roads,  had  been 
wide  awake ;  and  busy  all  the  while,  bringing  in  abundant 
pabulum  of  an  irregular  nature. 

He  did  learn  "  Ai-ithmetic,"  *'  Geography,"  and  the  other 
useful  knowledges  that  were  indispensable  to  him.  He  knows 
History  extensively ;  though  rather  the  Roman,  French,  and 
general  European  as  the  French  have  taught  it  him,  than  that 
of  '•  Hessen,  Brunswick,  England,"  or  even  the  "  Electoral  and 
Royal  House  of  Brandenburg,"  which  Papa  had  recommended. 

^  M^moires  depuis  la  Paix  de  Huhertshowrg,  1763-1774  (Avaut-Propos). 
CEuvres,  vii.  8. 


420  HIS  AI'1'KENTlCESllll',   FIRST  8TAGK.     H-'k  IV. 

17  l.J- 17-21. 

lit'  read  History,  wliere  he  could  find  it  readable,  to  the  «>nd  of 
his  life;  and  had  early  l)egiin  reatling  it.  —  immensely  eag»T 
to  learn,  in  liis  little  )'"ad,  what  strange  things  had  been,  ani] 
were,  in  this  strange  Planet  he  was  eonie  into. 

We  notice  with  pleasure  a  lively  taste  for  facts  in  the  little 
Hoy ;  which  eontinned  to  l>e  the  t;iste  of  the  Man,  in  an  end- 
nent  degree.  Fictions  he  also  knows;  an  eager  extensive 
reiwler  of  what  is  called  Poetry,  Literature,  and  himself  a  iwr- 
formcr  in  that  province  by  and  by :  but  it  is  observable  how 
much  of  Ucalism  there  always  is 'in  his  Literature;  hi»w  (lose, 
hi're  as  elsewhere,  lie  always  hangs  on  the  iinictical  truth  of 
things;  how  Fiction  itself  is  either  an  exposit(»ry  illustrative 
garment  of  F;u't,  or  el.so  is  of  no  value  to  him.  Komantic 
readei-8  of  his  Literature  are  much  disaj)iM)ipt<»d  in  conse- 
quence, and  pronounce  it  I >ad  Literature;  —  ami  sure  enough, 
in  several  senses,  it  is  not  to  Ik*  called  good !  had  Literature, 
they  say ;  shallow,  barren,  most  unsatisfactory  to  a  rejuler  of 
romantic  appetites.  Which  is  a  correct  verdict,  as  to  the  ro- 
mantic ;  ppetit«'s  ami  it.  liut  to  tlie  man  himself,  tliis  (juality 
of  mind  is  of  iuinuMise  moment  and  advantage;  and  forms 
truly  the  basis  of  all  he  w;us  goo<l  for  in  life.  Once  for  all, 
he  has  no  pleasure  in  dreams,  in  juirti-colored  clouds  and  notii- 
ingnesses.  All  his  curiosities  gravitate  towards  what  exists, 
what  has  iM'ing  and  ivality  round  him.  That  is  the  signifi- 
cant thing  to  him  ;  that  he  wouM  right  gladly  know,  Ining 
already  related  to  that,  as  friend  or  as  enemy;  and  feeling  an 
unconscious  indissoluble  kinship,  who  shall  say  of  what  im- 
portance, towards  all  that.  For  lie  too  is  a  little  Fact,  big  as 
can  be  to  himself;  and  in  the  whole  Universe  there  exists 
nothing  as  fact  but  is  a  fellow-creature  of  his. 

That  our  little  Fritz  t4^n<ls  that  way,  ought  to  give  Nol- 
tenius,  F'inkenstein  ani  other  interested  parties,  the  very 
highest  satisfaction.  It  is  an  excellent  symptom  of  his  intel- 
lect, this  of  gravitating  irresistibly  towards  realities.  Better 
symptom  of  its  quality  (whatever  quanfift/  there  be  of  it), 
human  intellect  cannot  show  for  itself.  However  it  may  go 
with  Literature,  and  satisfaction  to  rea<lers  of  romantic  appe- 
titdv,  this  young  soul  promises  to  become  a  successful  Worker 


(  u.vi-.  \!1I.         RESULTS   OF   HIS   SCHOOLING.  421 

17i:i-172;i. 

one  day,  ami  to  do  something  under  tLi'  Sun.     For  work  is  of 

an  extremely  unfictitious  nature ;    and  no  man  can  roof  his 

house  with  clouds  and  moonshine,  so  as  to  turn  the  rain  from 

}iim. 

It  is  also  to  be  noted  tliat  his  style  of  French,  though  he 
spnlt  it  so  ill,  and  never  had  the  least  mastery  of  punctua- 
tion, has  real  merit.  Kapidity,  eiisy  vivacity,  perfect  clear- 
ness, here  and  there  a  certain  quaint  expressiveness  :  on  the 
whoJe,  he  had  learned  the  Art  of  Speech,  from  tliose  old 
French  Governesses,  in  tliose  old  and  new  French  Books  of 
liis.  A\  e  can  also  say  of  his  Literature,  of  what  he  hastily 
wrote  in  mature  life,  that  it  ha.s  much  more  worth,  even  as 
Literature,  than  the  common  romantic  appetite  assigns  to  it. 
A  vein  of  distinct  sense,  and  good  interior  articulation,  is 
nt'ver  wanting  in  that  thin-flowing  utterance.  The  true  is 
well  ridiUed  out  from  amid  the  false  ;  the  important  and  es- 
sential are  alone  given  us,  the  unimportant  and  superfluous 
honestly  thrown  away.  A  lean  wiry  veracity  (an  immense 
advantage  in  any  Literature,  good  or  had  !)  is  everywhere 
beneticently  observable ;  the  qualltif  of  the  intellect  always 
extremely  good,   whatever  its  quantity  may  be. 

It  is  true,  his  spelling — '•  r/.sYc ?//•<?'' for  "  «  rette  heure^^  — 
is  very  bad.  And  as  for  punctuation,  he  never  could  under- 
stand the  mystery  of  it ;  he  merely  scatters  a  few  commas  and 
dashes,  as  if  they  were  shaken  out  of  a  pepper-box  upon  his 
page,  and  so  leaves  it.  These  are  deficiencies  lying  very  bare 
to  criticism ;  and  I  confess  I  never  could  completely  under- 
staiul  them  in  such  a  man.  He  that  would  have  ordered 
arrest  for  the  smallest  speck  of  mud  on  a  man's  butf-belt,  in- 
dignant that  any  pijje-clayed  portion  of  a  man  should  not  be 
]»erfectly  pipe-clayed :  how  could  he  tolerate  false  spelling, 
and  commas  shaken  as  out  of  a  pepper-box  over  his  page  ?  It 
is  probable  he  cared  little  about  Literature,  after  all ;  cared, 
at  least,  only  about  the  essentials  of  it;  had  practically  no 
ambition  for  himself,  or  none  considerable,  in  that  kind ;  — 
and  so  might  reckon  exact  obedience  and  punctuality,  in  a 
soldier,  more   important  than    good   spelling   to  an   amateur 


422  HIS  Ari'KENTICESHIP,  FIRST  STAGE.      B.>..k  IV. 

]71.i-172.J. 

literary  man.  He  never  minded  snuff  ui)on  his  own  chin, 
not  even  upon  liis  waistcoat  and  breeelies :  A  merely  super- 
ficial thing,  not  worth  bothering  about,  in  the  press  of  real 
business  !  — 

That  Friedricli's  Course  of  Education  did  on  the  whole 
prosper,  in  spite  of  every  drawback,  is  known  to  all  men. 
He  came  out  of  it  a  man  of  clear  and  ever-improving  intelli- 
gence; equii)ped  with  knowledge,  true  in  csseivtials,  if  not 
punctiliously  exact,  upon  all  manner  of  practical  and  specu- 
lative things,  to  a  degree  not  only  unexampled  ;unong  modern 
Sovereign  Princes  so  called,  but  such  as  to  distinguish  him 
even  among  the  studious  class.  Nay  many  *' Men-of-Letters  " 
have  made  a  reputation  for  themselves  with  but  a  fraction  of 
the  real  knowledge  concerning  men  and  thing^,  piist  and  pres- 
ent, which  Friedrich  was  possessed  of.  Already  at  tlu;  time 
when  action  came  to  be  demanded  of  him,  he  w:us  what  we 
must  call  a  well-informetl  and  cultivated  man ;  which  charac- 
ter he  never  ceased  to  merit  more  and  more ;  and  as  for  tlie 
action,  and  the  actions,  —  we  shall  see  whether  he  was  fit  for 
these  or  not. 

One  point  of  sui)reme  importance  in  his  education  was  all 
along  made  sure  of,  by  the  mere  presence  and  ])residence  of 
Friedrich  Wilhelm  in  the  business  :  That  there  was  an  inflexi- 
ble law  of  discipline  everywhere  active  in  it ;  that  there  was 
a  Sjiartan  rigor,  frugality,  veracity  inculcated  upon  him. 
"  Economy  he  is  to  study  to  the  bottom  ;  "  and  not  only  so, 
but,  in  another  sense  of  the  word,  he  is  to  practise  economy ; 
and  does,  or  else  suffers  for  not  doing  it.  Economic  of  liis 
time,  first  of  all:  generally  every  other  noble  economy  will 
follow  out  of  that,  if  a  man  once  understand  and  practise 
that.  Here  was  a  truly  valuable  foundation  laid ;  and  as  for 
the  rest,  Nature,  in  spite  of  shot-rubbish,  had  to  do  what  she 
could  in  the  rest. 

lUit  Nature  had  been  very  kind  to  this  new  child  of  hers. 
And  among  the  confused  hurtful  elements  of  his  Schooling, 
there  was  always,  as  we  say,  this  eminently  salutary  and  most 
potent  one,  of  its  being,   in  the  gross,  an  Apprenticeship   to 


LHA1-.  XIII.        RESULTS   OF   HIS  SCHOOLING.  423 

17ia-172a. 

Friedrich  Wllhelm  the  Rhadamanthine  Spartan  King,  who 
hates  from  his  heart  all  empty  Nonsense,  and  Unveracity  most 
of  all.  Which  one  element,  well  aided  by  docility,  by  openness 
and  loyalty  of  mind,  on  the  Pupil's  part,  proved  at  length 
suihcient  to  conquer  the  others  ;  as  it  were  to  buin  up  all  the 
others,  and  reduce  their  sour  dark  smoke,  abounding  every- 
where, into  flame  and  illumination  mostly.  This  radiant 
swift-paced  Son  owed  much  to  the  surly,  ii-ascible,  sure-footed 
Father  that  bred  him.  Friedrich  did  at  length  see  into  Fried- 
rich  \Vilhelm,  across  the  abstruse,  thunderous,  sulphurous 
embodiments  and  accompaniments  of  the  man ;  —  and  proved 
himself,  in  all  manner  of  important  respects,  the  filial  sequel 
of  Friedrich  Wilhelm.  These  remarks  of  a  certain  Editor  are 
perhaps  worth  adding  :  — 

"  Friedrich  Wilhelm,  King  of  Prussia,  did  not  set  up  for  a 
Pestalozzi ;  and  the  plan  of  Education  for  his  Son  is  open  to 
manifold  objections.  Nevertheless,  as  Schoolmasters  go,  I 
much  prefer  him  to  most  others  we  have  at  present.  The 
wild  man  had  discerned,  with  his  rugged  natural  intelligence 
(not  wasted  away  in  the  idle  element  of  speaking  and  of  being 
spoken  to,  but  kept  wholesomely  silent  for  most  part),  That 
human  education  is  not,  and  cannot  be,  a  thing  of  vocables. 
That  it  is  a  thing  of  earnest  facts ;  of  capabilities  developed, 
of  habits  established,  of  dispositions  well  dealt  with,  of  ten- 
dencies confirmed  and  tendencies  repressed  :  — a  laborious  sepa- 
rating of  the  character  into  two  fii'inamejits  ;  shutting  down 
the  subterranean,  well  down  and  deep ;  an  earth  and  waters, 
and  wliat  lies  under  them  ;  then  your  everlasting  azure  sky, 
and  immeasurable  depths  of  aether,  hanging  serene  overhead. 
To  make  of  the  human  soul  a  Cosmos,  so  far  as  possible,  that 
was  Friedrich  Wilhelm's  dumb  notion  :  not  to  leave  the  human  v 
soul  a  mere  Chaos  ;  —  how  much  less  a  Singing  or  eloquently 
Spouting  Chaos,  which  is  ten  times  worse  than  a  Chaos  left 
mute,  confessedly  chaotic  and  not  cosmic !  To  develop  the 
man  into  doing  something ;  and  withal  into  doing  it  as  the 
Universe  and  the  Eternal  Laws  require,  —  which  is  but  an- 
other name   for  really  doing  and  not  merely  seeming  to  do 


424  ills  Al'l'liE.NTlCESlill',   riliST   STAdK.      Book  IV. 

17i;i-1723. 

it :  —  that  was  Friedrich  Wilhelm's  dumb  notion  :  aud  it  Wiis, 
1  can  assure  you,  very  far  from  being  a  foolish  one,  though 
tliere  was  no  Latin  in  it,  and  much  of  l*rus.sian  pipe-clay ! " 

Jiut  the  Congress  of  Cambrai  is  met,  and  much  else  is  met 
and  piirted :  and  the  Kaiser's  Spectre-Ilunt,  especially  his 
Duel  with  the  She-Dragon  of  Spain,  is  in  full  course  ;  and  it 
is  time  we  were  saying  something  of  the  Double-Marriage  in  a 
directly  narrative  way. 


BOOK    V. 

DOUBLE-MARRIAGE  PROJECT,  AND  WHAT 
ELEMENT   IT   FELL   INTO. 

1723-1726. 


CHAPTER   I. 

DOUBLE-MARRIAGE    IS  DECIDED   ON. 

We  saw  George  I.  at  Berlin  iu  October,  1723,  looking  out 
upon  liis  little  Grandson  drilling  the  Cadets  there  ;  but  we  did 
not  mention  what  important  errand  had  brought  his  INIajesty 
thither. 

Visits  between  Hanover  and  Berlin  had  been  frequent  for  a 
long  time  back ;  the  young  Queen  of  Prussia,  sometimes  with 
her  husband,  sometimes  without,  running  often  over  to  see 
her  Father ;  who,  even  after  his  accession  to  the  English 
crown,  was  generally  for  some  months  every  year  to  be  met 
with  in  those  favorite  regions  of  his.  He  himself  did  not 
much  visit,  being  of  taciturn  splenetic  nature :  but  this  once 
he  had  agreed  to  return  a  visit  they  had  lately  made  him,  — 
where  a  certain  weighty  Business  had  been  agreed  upon, 
withal ;  which  his  Britannic  Majesty  was  to  consummate  for- 
mally, by  treaty,  when  the  meeting  in  Berlin  took  effect.  His 
Britannic  Majesty,  accordingly,  is  come  ;  the  business  in  hand 
is  no  other  than  that  thrice-famous  "  Double-Marriage "  of 
Prussia  with  England ;  which  once  had  such  a  sound  in  the 
ear  of  Rumor,  and  still  bulks  so  big  in  the  archives  of  the 
Eighteenth  Century ;  which  worked  such  woe  to  all  parties 
concerned  in  it ;  and  is,  in  fact,  a  first-rate  nuisance  in  the 


■i'2^      DOL'HLE-.MAKlilA(.;L    riiOJEL'T    STAKTED.        li<>oK  V. 

172.i-1726. 

History  of  that  poor  Century,  as  written  hitherto.  Nuisance 
iK'inanding  urgently  to  be  abated  ;  —  were  that  well  possible 
at  present.  Which,  alas,  it  is  not,  to  any  great  degree  ;  there 
being  an  important  young  Friedrich  inextricably  wrapt  up  in 
it,  to  whom  it  was  of  such  vital  or  almost  fatal  im])ortance  ! 
Without  a  Friedrich,  the  affair  could  be  reduced  to  something 
like  its  real  size,  and  recorded  in  a  few  jjages;  or  might  even, 
witli  advantage,  be  forgotten  altogether,  and  become  zero. 
More  gigantic  instance  of  much  ado  alx»ut  nothing  h;is  sehlom 
occurred  in  human  annals ;  —  had  not  there  been  a  Friedrich 
in  the  heart  of  it. 

Crown-Prince  Friedrich  is  still  very  young  for  marriage- 
speculations  on  his  score  :  but  Mamma  lias  thought  good  to 
take  matters  in  time.  And  so  we  shall,  in  the  next  ensuing 
parts  of  this  |)Oor  History,  have  to  hear  almost  as  much  al)Out 
Marriage  as  in  the  foolishest  Three-volume  Novel,  and  almost 
to  still  less  purpose.  For  indeed,  in  that  particular,  Friedrich's 
young  Life  may  l)e  called  a  linmanre  jtung  heeh-oi'er-head  ;  — 
^larriage  being  the  one  event  there,  round  which  all  events 
turn,  — but  turn  in  the  inverse  or  reverse  way  (as  if  the  Devil 
were  in  them);  not  only  towards  no  happy  goal  for  him  or 
^Mamma,  or  us,  but  at  last  towards  hardly  any  goal  at  all  for 
anybody!  So  mad  did  the  affair  grow; — and  is  so  madly 
recorded  in  those  inextricable,  dateless,  chaotic  Books.  We 
liave  now  come  to  regions  of  Narrative,  which  seem. to  consist 
of  murky  Nothingness  put  on  boil ;  not  land,  or  water,  or  air, 
or  fire,  but  a  tumultuously  wliirling  commixture  of  all  the 
four;  —  of  immense  extent  too.  Which  must  be  got  crossed, 
in  some  human  manner.     Courage,  patience,  good  reader ! 

Queen  Sophie  Dorothee  has  taken  Time  by  the  Forelock. 

Already,  for  a  dozen  years,  this  matter  has  been  treated  of. 
Queen  Sophie  Dorothee,  ever  since  the  birth  of  her  Wilhel- 
mina,  has  had  the  notion  of  it ;  and,  on  her  first  visit  after- 
wards to  Hanover,  proposed  it  to  "  Princess  Caroline,''  — 
Queen  Caroline  of  England  who  was  to  be,  and  who  in  due 
course  was  ;  —  an  excellent  accomplished  Brandenburg- Anspach 


Chap.  I.         DOUBLE-MARRIAGE   IS   DECIDED    ON.  427 

172a-172tj. 

Lady,  familiur  from  of  old  in  the  Prussian  Court :  "  You,  Caro- 
line, Cousin  dear,  have  a  little  Prince,  Fritz,  or  let  us  call  him 
Fred,  since  he  is  to  be  English  ;  little  Fred,  who  will  one  day, 
if  all  go  right,  be  King  of  England.  He  is  two  years  older 
than  my  little  Wilhelmina :  why  should  not  they  wed,  and 
the  two  chief  Protestant  Houses,  and  Nations,  thereby  be 
united  ?  "  Princess  Caroline  was  very  willing ;  so  was  Elec- 
tress  Sophie,  the  Great-Grandmother  of  both  the  parties  ;  so 
were  the  Georges,  Ftitlier  and  Grandfather  of  Fred :  little 
Pi-ed  himself  was  highly  chai-med,  when  told  of  it ;  even  little 
Wilhelmina,  with  her  dolls,  looked  pleasantly  demure  on  the 
occasion.  So  it  remained  settled  in  fact,  thougli  not  in  form ; 
and  little  Fred  (a  tiorid  milk-faced  foolish  kind  of  Boy,  I  guess) 
matle  presents  to  his  little  Prussian  Cousin,  wrote  bits  of  love- 
letters  to  her  ;  and  all  along  afterwards  fancied  himself,  and 
at  length  ardently  enough  became,  her  little  lover  and  in- 
tended, —  always  rather  a  little  fellow  :  —  to  which  sentiments 
AVilhelmina  signifies  that  she  responded  with  the  due  maidenly 
inditference,  but  not  in  an  offensive  manner. 

After  our  Prussian  Fritz's  birth,  the  matter  took  a  still 
closer  form  :  "  You,  dear  Princess  Caroline,  you  have  now  two 
little  Princesses  again,  either  of  whom  might  suit  my  little 
Fritzchen  ;  let  vis  take  Amelia,  the  second  of  them,  who  is 
nearest  his  age  ?  "  "  Agreed  !  "  answered  Princess  Caroline 
again.  "  Agreed  !  "  answered  all  the  parties  interested  :  and 
so  it  was  settled,  that  the  Marriage  of  Prussia  to  England 
should  bo  a  Double  one,  Fred  of  Hanover  and  England  to 
"Wilhelmina,  Fritz  of  Prussia  to  Amelia  ;  and  children  and 
parents  lived  thenceforth  in  the  constant  understanding  that 
such,  in  due  course  of  years,  was  to  be  the  case,  though  noth- 
ing yet  was  formally  concluded  by  treaty  upon  it.^ 

Queen  Sophie  Dorothee  of  Prussia  was  always  eager  enough 
for  treaty,  and  conclusion  to  her  scheme.  True  to  it,  she,  as 
needle  to  the  pole  in  all  weathers  ;  sometimes  in  the  wildest 
weather,  poor  lady.  Nor  did  the  Hanover  Serene  Highnesses, 
at  any  time,  draw  back  or  falter :  but  having  very  soon  got 
wafted  across  to  England,  into  new  more  complex  conditions, 

1  Polluitz,  Memoiren,  ii.  193. 


428      DOUBLE-MARRIAGE  PROJECT  STARTED.        n^^K  V. 

172.i-172G. 

and  wider  anxieties  in  that  new  country,  they  were  not  so 
impressively  eager  as  Queen  Sophie,  on  this  interesting  point. 
Eleetress  Sophie,  judicious  Great-Grandmother,  was  not  now 
there  :  Eleetress  Sophie  had  died  about  a  montli  Ix-fore  Queen 
Anne ;  and  never  saw  the  English  Canaan,  much  as  she  ha<l 
longed  for  it.  George  I.,  her  son,  a  taciturn,  rather  splenetic 
elderly  Gentleman,  very  foreign  in  England,  and  oftencst 
rather  sulky  there  and  elsewhere,  was  not  in  a  hmnor  to  l»c 
forward  in  that  particular  business. 

George  I.  had  got  into  quarrel  with  his  Prince  of  Wales, 
Fred's  Father,  —  him  who  is  one  day  to  be  (Jeorge  II.,  always 
a  rather  foolish  little  Prince,  though  his  Wife  Caroline  waa 
Wisdom's  self  in  a  manner  :  —  George  I.  had  otlier  nnu-h  more 
urgent  cares  than  that  of  marrying  his  disobedient  foolish 
little  Prince  of  Wales's  offspring ;  and  he  always  jtleatled 
difliculties,  Acts  of  Parlianu-nt  that  would  \)C  needed,  and  tho 
like,  whenever  Sophie  Dorothee  came  to  visit  him  at  Hanover, 
and  urge  this  matter.  The  taciturn,  inarticulately  thoughtful, 
rather  sulky  old  Gentleman,  he  had  weighty  burdens  lying  on 
him ;  felt  fretted  and  galled,  in  many  ways  ;  and  had  found 
life,  Eh'ctoral  and  even  Koyal,  a  deceptive  sumptuosity,  littlo 
better  than  a  more  or  less  extensive  "  feast  of  .s7</'//,«,"  next  to 
no  real  meat  or  drink  left  in  it  to  the  hungry  heart  of  man. 
Wife  sitting  half-frantic  in  the  Castle  of  Ahlden,  waxing  more 
and  more  iuto  a  gray-liaired  Megaera  (with  whom  Sophie  Doro- 
thee under  seven  seals  of  secrecy  corresponds  a  little,  and 
even  the  Prince  of  Wales  is  suspected  of  wishing  to  corre- 
spond) ;  a  foolish  disobedient  Prince  of  Wales  ;  Jacobite  Pre- 
tender people  with  their  Mar  Rel>ellions,  with  their  AllxToni 
combinations  ;  an  English  Parliament  jangling  and  debatin ,' 
unmrlodiously,  whose  very  language  is  a  mystery  to  us,  noth- 
ing but  Walpole  in  dog-latin  to  help  us  through  it :  truly  it  is 
not  a  Pleaven-on-Earth  altogether,  much  as  ^lother  Sophie  and 
her  foolish  favorite,  our  disobedient  Prince  of  Wales,  might 
long  for  it !  And  the  Hanover  Tail,  the  Kobethons,  Berns- 
torfs,  Fabrices,  even  the  Blackamoor  Porters,  —  they  are  not 
beautiful  either,  to  a  tacitiun  Majesty  of  some  sense,  if  he 
cared  about  their  doings  or  them.     Voracious,  plunderous,  all 


Chap.  I.         DOUBLE-MARRIAGE   IS  DECIDED   ON.  429 

17;i;i-172ti. 

of  them ;  like  hounds,  long  hungry,  got  into  a  rich  house  which 
has  no  master,  or  a  mere  iuiaginary  one.  '^Mentiris  impic- 
clentiiishne,'^  said  Walpole  in  his  dog-latin  once,  in  our  Royal 
presence,  to  one  of  these  official  plunderous  gentlemen,  "  You 
tell  an  impudent  lie !  "  —  at  which  we  only  laughed.^ 

His  Britannic  ^lajesty  by  no  means  wanted  sense,  had  not 
his  situation  been  incurably  absurd.  In  his  young  time  he 
had  served  creditably  enough  against  the  Turks ;  twice  com- 
manded tlie  Iu'ichs-\vmy  in  the  Marlborough  Wars,  and  did 
at  least  testify  his  indignation  at  the  inefficient  state  of  it. 
His  Foreign  Polities,  so  called,  were  not  madder  than  those  of 
others.  IJromen  and  Verden  he  had  bought  a  bargain  ;  and  it 
was  natund  to  protect  them  by  such  resources  as  he  had,  Eng- 
lish or  other.  Then  there  was  the  World-Spectre  of  the  Pre- 
tender, stretching  huge  over  Creation,  like  the  Brocken-Spectre 
in  hazy  weather ;  —  against  whom  how  protect  yourself,  except 
by  cannonading  for  the  Kaiser  at  Messina ;  by  rushing  into 
every  brabble  that  rose,  and  hiring  the  parties  with  money  to 
fight  it  out  well  ?  It  was  the  established  method  in  that  mat- 
ter ;  method  not  of  George's  inventing,  nor  did  it  cease  with 
George.  As  to  Domestic  Politics,  except  it  were  to  keep  quiet, 
and  eat  what  the  gods  had  provided,  one  does  not  find  that  he 
had  any.  —  The  sage  Leibnitz  would  very  fain  have  followed 
him  to  England ;  but,  for  reasons  indifferently  good,  could 
never  be  allowed.  If  the  truth  must  be  told,  the  sage  Leibnitz 
ha^l  a  wisdom  which  now  looks  dreadfully  like  that  of  a  wise- 
acre !  In  Mathematics  even,  —  he  did  invent  the  Differential 
Calculus,  but  it  is  certain  also  he  never  could  believe  in  IS'ew- 
ton's  System  of  the  Universe,  nor  would  read  the  Principia  at 
all.  For  the  rest,  he  was  in  quarrel  about  Xewton  with  the 
Royal  Society  here ;  ill  seen,  it  is  probable,  by  this  sage  and 
the  other.  To  the  Hanover  Official  Gentlemen  devouring  their 
English  dead-horse,  it  did  not  appear  that  his  presence  could 
be  useful  in  these  parts.' 

^  Horace  Walpole,  Reminiscences  of  George  I.  and  George  II.  (London, 
1788.) 

^  Gohrauer,  Gottfried  Freiherr  von  Leibnitz,  eine  Biographie  (Breslau,  1842); 
Ker  of  Kersland,  Memoirs  of  Secret  Transactions  (London,  1727). 


4'jO     DoriJLE-MARRIAGE   PROJECT   STARTED.        B.>n,<  v. 

17-2;i-172(). 

Nor  are  the  Hanover  womankind  his  Majesty  has  about  him, 
quasi-wives  or  not,  of  a  soul-entrancing  character ;  far  indeed 
from  that.  Two  in  chief  tliero  are,  a  fat  and  a  lean  :  the  loan, 
called  ''  Maypole  "  by  the  English  populace,  is  '•  Duchess  of 
Kendal,"  with  exct'llent  pension,  in  the  English  Peerages  ; 
Schulenburg  tiie  former  German  name  of  her ;  decidi-dly  a 
quasv-wife  (influential,  against  her  will,  in  that  sad  Ki'migs- 
niark  Tragedy,  at  Hanover  long  since),  who  is  fallen  thin  and 
old.  "  Maypole,"  —  or  bare  Hojvpole,  with  the  leaves  all 
stript ;  lean,  long,  haril ;  —  though  she  once  had  her  summer 
verdures  too;  and  still,  as  an  old  quasi-wife,  or  were  it  «»nly 
as  an  old  article  of  furniture,  has  her  worth  to  the  royal  mind. 
Sehulenburgs,  kindred  of  hers,  are  high  in  the  military  line  ; 
some  of  whom  we  may  meet. 

Then  besides  this  lean  one,  there  is  a  fat ;  of  wliom  Walpole 
(Horace,  who  had  seen  her  in  boyhood)  gives  description.  Big 
staring  black  eyes,  with  rim  of  circular  eyebrow,  like  a  coach- 
wheel  round  its  nave,  very  black  the  eyebrows  also  ;  vast  red 
face  ;  cheeks  running  into  neck,  neck  blending  indistinguisha- 
bly  with  stomach,  —  a  mere  cataract  of  fluid  tallow,  skinned 
over  and  curiously  dizened,  according  to  AValpole's  portraiture. 
This  charming  creature,  Kielmannsegge  by  German  name,  was 
called  "Countess  of  Darlington"  in  this  country — with  ex- 
cellent pension,  as  was  natural.  They  all  hiul  pensions :  even 
Queen  Sophie  Dorothee,  I  have  noticed  in  our  State-l'aper 
Office,  has  her  small  pension,  "  £800  a  year  on  the  Irish  Estab- 
lishment : "  Irish  Establishment  will  never  miss  such  a  j)it- 
tance  for  our  poor  Child,  and  it  may  be  useful  over  yonder ! 
—  This  Kielmannsegge  Countess  of  Darlington  was,  and  is, 
believed  by  the  gossiping  English  to  have  been  a  second  simul- 
taneous Mistress  of  his  Majesty's  ;  but  seems,  after  all,  to  have 
been  his  Half-Sister  and  nothing  more.  Half-Sister  (due  to 
Gentleman  Ernst  and  a  Countess  Platen  of  bad  Hanover  fame) ; 
grown  dreadfully  fat;  but  not  without  shrewdness,  perhaps 
affection;  and  worth  something  in  this  dull  foreign  country, 
mere  cataract  of  animal  oils  as  she  has  become.  These  Two 
are  the  amount  of  his  Britannic  Majesty's  resources  in  that 
matter ;  resources  surely  not  extensive,  after  all  I  — 


Cu.u:  1.         DOUBLE-MARIUAGE   IS   DECIDED   ON.  431 

1723-1726. 

His  Britannic  Majesty's  day,  in  St.  James's,  is  not  of  an  in- 
teresting sort  to  him ;  and  every  evening  he  comes  precisely 
at  a  certain  hour  to  drink  beer,  seasoned  with  a  little  tobacco, 
and  the  company  of  these  two  women.  Drinks  diligently 
in  a  sipping  way,  says  Horace;  and  smokes,  with  such  dull 
speech  as  there  may  be, — not  till  he  is  drunk,  but  only 
perceptibly  drunkish ;  raised  into  a  kind  of  cloudy  narcotic 
Olympus,  and  opaquely  superior  to  the  ills  of  life ;  in  which 
stale  he  walks  uncomplainingly  to  bed.  Government,  when  it 
-can  by  any  art  be  avoided,  he  rarely  meddles  with ;  shows  a 
rugged  sagacity,  where  he  does  and  must  meddle  :  consigns  it 
to  AValpole  in  dog-latin,  —  laughs  at  his  "  mentiris.'^  This  is 
the  First  George ;  first  triumph  of  the  Constitutional  Princi- 
])le,  which  has  since  gone  to  such  sublime  heights  among  us, 
—  lu'ights  which  we  at  last  begin  to  suspect  mi;-,dit  be  depths, 
h'ailing  down,  all  men  now  ask :  Whitherwards  ?  A  much- 
admired  invention  in  its  time,  that  of  letting  go  the  rudder,  or 
setting  a  wooden  figure  expensively  dressed  to  take  charge  of 
it,  and  discerning  tluit  the  ship  would  sail  of  itself  so  much 
more  easily!  "Which  it  will,  if  a  peculiarly  good  searboat, 
in  certain  kinds  of  sea,  —  for  a  time.  Till  the  Siubad  "  Mag- 
n-tic  ^Mountains"  begin  to  be  felt  pulling,  or  the  circles  of 
C'harybdis  get  you  in  their  sweep ;  and  then  what  an  invention 
it  Avas  !  —  This,  we  say,  is  the  new  Sovereign  ZMan,  whom  the 
English  People,  being  in  some  perplexity  about  the  Pope  and 
other  points,  have  called  in  from  Hanover,  to  walk  before 
them  in  the  ways  of  heroism,  and  by  command  and  by  ex- 
ample guide  Heavenwards  their  affairs  and  them.  And  they 
hope  that  he  will  do  it  ?  Or  perhaps  that  their  affairs  will  go 
thither  of  their  own  accord  ?     Always  a  singular  People !  — 

Poor  George,  careless  of  these  ulterior  issues,  has  always 
trouble  enough  with  the  mere  daily  details.  Parliamentary  in- 
solences, Jacobite  plottings,  South-Sea  Bubbles ;  and  wishes 
to  hunt,  when  he  gets  over  to  Hanover,  rather  than  to  make 
^larriage-Treaties.  Besides,  as  Wilhelmina  tells  us,  they  have 
filled  him  with  lies,  these  Hanover  Women  and  their  emissa- 
ries :  "  Your  Princess  Wilhelmina  is  a  monster  of  ill-temper, 


432       DUUBLE-MAKKIAGE   PKOJECT   STARTED.      ««h.k  V. 

crooked  in  the  back  and  what  not,''  say  tliey.  11'  theiv  is  to 
be  a  ^Marriage,  doubk^  or  single,  these  Improjter  l'\*males  must 
first  be  persuaded  to  consent.'  Dithcultii-s  enough.  And 
there  is  none  to  help  ;  Friedrieh  Wilheliu  eares  little  about 
the  matter,  though  he  has  given  his  Vi'S,  —  Yes,  since  you 
will. 

LJut  Sophie  Dorothea  is  diligent  and  urgent,  by  all  opportu- 
nities;—  and,  at  length,  in  172."{,  the  conjuncture  is  propitious. 
Domestic  Jaeobitism,  in  the  shape  of  Bishop  Atterbury,  has 
got  itself  well  banislunl ;  Alberoni  and  his  big  schemes,  years 
ago  they  are  blown  into  outer  darkness;  Charh-s  XII.  is  well 
dead,  and  of  our  Bremen  and  Verden  no  question  henceforth; 
even  the  Kaiser's  Spectre-Hunt,  or  Spanish  Duel,  is  at  rest  for 
the  present,  and  the  Congress  of  Cambrai  is  sitting,  or  trying 
all  it  can  to  sit :  at  home  or  abroad,  there  is  nothing,  not  even 
Wood's  Irish  Half[)ence,  as  yet  making  noise.  Aud  on  the 
other  liand.  Czar  Peter  is  rumored  (not  without  foundation) 
to  l>e  ccming  westward,  with  some  huge  armament;  which, 
whether  ''  intended  for  Sweden "  or  not,  renders  a  Prussian 
alliance  doubly  valuable. 

And  so  now  at  last,  in  this  favorable  aspect  of  the  stars, 
King  George,  over  at  Herrenhausen,  was  liy  nnuh  management 
of  his  Daughter  Sophie's,  and  after  many  hitches,  brought  to 
the  mark.  Ami  Friedrieh  Wilhelm  came  over  too  ;  ostensibly 
to  bring  home  his  Queen,  but  in  reality  to  hear  his  Father- 
in-law's  compliance  to  the  Double-Marriage,  —  for  which  his 
IVussian  Majesty  is  willing  enough,  if  others  are  willing. 
Praised  be  Heaven,  King  George  has  agreed  to  everything ; 
consents,  one  propitious  day  (Autumn  1723,  day  not  otherwise 
dated), — Czar  Peter's  Armament,  and  the  questionable  as- 
pects in  France,  perha]is  quickening  his  volitions  a  little. 
Upon  which  Friedrieh  Wilhelm  and  Queen  So])hie  have  re- 
turned home,  content  in  that  matter ;  and  expect  shortly  his 
Britannic  ^[aje^ty's  counter-visit,  to  perfect  the  details,  and 
make  a  Treaty  of  it. 

His  Britannic  Majesty,  we  say,  has  in  substance  agreed  to 
everything.     Aud  now,  in  the  silence  of  Nature,  the  brown 

^  Mtfmoircs  cle  Bariilh. 


CiiAi'.  1.  DOLliLE-MAKKlAUE    IS   DECIDED   UN.         433 

i7-2a. 

leaves  of  October  still  hanging  to  the  trees  in  a  picturesque 

manner,  and  Wood's  Halfpence  not  yet  begun  to  jingle  in  the 

Drapier's  Letters  of  Dean  Swift,  —  liis  Britannic  Majesty  is 

exjieeted  at  lierlin.     At  Berlin;  properly  at  Charlottenburg 

a  pleasant  rural  or   suburban  Palace   (built  by  his  Britannic 

Majesty's  late  noble   Sister,  Sophie  Charlotte,  *'the  Republi- 

(jan  Queen,"  and  named  after  her,  as  was  once  mentioned),  a 

mile  or  two  Southwest  of  that  City.     There  they  await  King 

George's  counter-visit. 

Poor  Wilhelmina  is  in  much  trepidation  about  it ;  and  im- 
l)arts  her  poor  little  feelings,  her  anticipations  and  experi- 
ences, in  readable  terms :  — 

"There  came,  in  those  weeks,  one  of  llic  Duke  of  Glouces- 
ter's gentlemen  to  Berlin,"  —  I>itfce  of  (jlmucater  is  Fred  our 
intended,  not  yet  Prince  of  Wales,  and  if  the  reader  should 
ever  hear  of  a  Duke  of  Edbiburgh,  that  too  is  Fred,  —  "  Duke 
of  Gloucester's  gentlemen  to  Berlin,"  says  Wilhelmina :  "  the 
Queen  had  Soiree  (AjjjMirtenieiit) ;  he  was  presented  to  her  as 
well  as  to  me.  He  made  me  a  very  obliging  compliment  on 
liis  Master's  part;  I  blushed,  and  answered  only  by  a  courtesy. 
The  Queen,  who  had  her  eye  on  me,  was  very  angry  I  had 
answered  the  Duke's  compliments  in  mere  silence ;  and  rated 
me  sharply  (me  Icra  hi  tttt;  <rintportance)  for  it;  and  ordered 
me,  under  pain  of  her  indignation,  to  repair  that  fault  to-mor- 
row. I  retired,  all  in  tears,  to  my  room ;  exasperated  against 
the  Queen  and  against  the  Duke ;  I  swore  I  would  never  marry 
him,  would  throw  myself  at  the  feet  —  "  And  so  on,  as  young 
ladies  of  vivacious  temper,  in  extreme  circumstances,  are  wont : 
—  did  speak,  however,  next  day,  to  my  Hanover  gentleman 
about  his  Duke,  a  little,  thougli  in  an  embarrassed  manner. 
Alas,  I  am  yet  but  fourteen,  gone  the  3d  of  July  last :  tremu- 
lous as  aspen-leaves;  or  say,  as  sheet-lightning  bottled  in 
one  of  the  thinnest  human  skins ;  and  have  no  experience  of 
foolish  Dukes  and  affairs  I  — 

"Meanwhile,"  continues  Wilhelmina,  "the  King  of  Eng- 
land's time  of  arrival  was  drawing  nigh.  We  repaired,  on  the 
Ctli  of  October,  to  Charlottenburg  to  receive  him.     The  heart 


434       DUL'ULK-.MAKKIAGE    PROJECT    STAltTED.       I»<'ok  V. 

Ucl.  I72a. 

of  me  kt*|)t  In-atiu;^',  iiiul  I  \v;ls  in  cruel  agitiitioiis.  King 
George  [my  Gnindfather,  and  Grand  Uncle]  arrived  ou  the 
8th,  about  seven  in  the  evening;" — dusky  shades  aln-aily 
sinking  over  Nature  everywhere,  and  all  paths  growing  dun. 
Abundant  flunkies,  of  course,  rush  out  with  torches  or  what 
is  needful.  "■  The  King  of  Prussia,  tiie  (jueen  and  all  their 
Suite  received  him  in  the  Court  of  the  Palace,  the  '  A[iart- 
ments '  being  on  the  ground-floor.  So  soon  as  he  hail  saluted 
tlie  King  and  Queen,  I  was  presented  to  liim.  He  embraced 
me ;  and  turning  to  the  Queen  said  to  her,  *  Your  daugiiter  is 
very  big  of  her  age  I'  He  gave  the  Queen  his  hand,  and  led 
lier  into  her  apartment,  whither  everybody  followed  them.  As 
soon  as  I  came  in,  he  took  a  light  from  tin*  Uible,  and  surveyed 
me  from  liead  to  foot.  I  stood  raotioidess  as  a  statue,  an<l  was 
much  put  out  of  count^'nance.  All  this  went  'on  without  his 
uttering  the  le;ist  word.  Having  thus  piissed  me  in  review,  he 
a<ldressed  himself  to  my  Brother,  whom  lie  wiressed  much,  and 
anuised  himself  with,  for  a  gtxxl  while."  Pretty  little  Grand- 
son this,  your  Majesty;  —  any  future  of  history  in  this  one, 
think  you'.'  "  I,"  says  Wilhelmiuji,  "took  the  op|K)rtunity  of 
slipjiing  out;"  —  hoiH-ful  to  get  away;  but  could  not,  the 
(^uet'U  having  noticeil. 

"  The  Qjeen  raaile  me  a  sign  to  follow  her  ;  and  passed  into 
a  neighlxiring  apartment,  where  she  hail  the  English  and  Ger- 
mans of  King  George's  Suite  successively  presented  to  her. 
After  some  talk  with  these  gentlemen,  she  withdrew  ;  leaving 
me  to  entertain  them,  and  saying:  '  S|>eak  English  to  my 
Daughter ;  you  will  find  siie  speaks  it  very  well.'  I  felt  mucli 
less  embarrassed,  once  the  Queen  was  gone;  and  picking  up 
a  little  courage,  I  entered  into  conversation  with  these  Eng- 
lish. As  I  spoke  their  language  like  my  mother-tongue,  I  got 
l)retty  well  out  of  the  affair,  and  everylxKly  seemed  charmed 
with  me.  They  made  my  eulogy  to  the  Queen ;  told  her  I  had 
quite  the  English  air,  and  was  made  to  be  their  Sovereign  one 
day.  It  was  saying  a  great  deal  on  their  part :  for  these  Eng- 
lish think  themselves  so  much  alx)ve  all  other  i)eople,  that 
they  imagine  they  are  paying  a  high  compliment  when  they 
tell  any  one  he  has  got  English  manners. 


C.I.U-.  I.  DOUBLE-MAKKIAGE   18   DECIDED   ON.         435 

Oct.  1723. 

"TlieirKiiig  [my  Grandpapa]  had  got  Spanish  manners,  I 
should  say :  he  was  of  an  extreme  gravity,  and  hardly  spoke 
a  word  to  anybody.  He  saluted  Madam  Sousfeld  [my  inval- 
uable thi'ice-dear  Governess]  very  coldly ;  and  asked  her  '  If 
I  was  always  so  serious,  and  if  my  humor  was  of  the  melan- 
choly turn  ?  '  *  Anything  but  that.  Sire,'  answered  the  other  : 
'  but  the  respect  she  has  for  youi-  Majesty  prevents  her  from 
being  as  sprightly  as  she  commonly  is.'  He  wagged  his  head, 
and  answered  nothing.  The  reception  he  had  given  me,  and 
this  (question,  of  which  1  heard,  gave  me  such  a  chill,  that  I 
never  had  the  courage  to  speak  to  him,"  —  was  merely  looked 
at  with  a  candle  by  Grandpapa. 

"  We  were  summoned  to  supper  at  last,  where  this  grave 
Sovereign  still  remained  dumb.  I'l-rhaps  he  was  right,  perliaps 
he  was  wrong;  but  I  think  he  followed  the  proverb,  which 
says,  Better  hold  your  tongue  than  speak  baiUy.  At  the  end 
of  tlie  repast  he  felt  indisposed.  The  Queen  would  have  per- 
suudeil  him  to  quit  table ;  they  bandied  compliments  a  good 
while  on  the  point;  but  at  last  she  threw  down  her  napkin, 
and  rose.  The  King  of  England  naturally  rose  too ;  but  began 
to  stagger;  the  King  of  Prussia  ran  up  to  help  him,  all  the 
company  ran  bustling  about  him ;  but  it  was  to  no  purpose : 
he  sank  on  his  knees ;  his  peruke  falling  on  one  side,  and 
his  hat  [or  at  least  his  head,  ^fadara  !]  on  the  other.  They 
stretched  him  softly  on  the  floor  ;  where  he  remained  a  good 
liour  without  consciousness.  The  pains  they  took  with  him 
br()u;^ht  back  his  senses,  by  degrees,  at  last.  The  Queen  and 
tlie  King  [of  Prussia]  were  in  despair  all  this  while.  Many 
have  thought  this  attack  was  a  herald  of  the  stroke  of  apo- 
plexy which  came  by  and  by,"  —  within  four  years  from  this 
date,  and  carrieel  off  his  Majesty  in  a  very  gloomy  manner. 

"  They  passionately  entreated  him  to  retire  now,"  continues 
AVilhelmina ;  *'  but  he  would  not  by  any  means.  He  led  out  the 
Queen,  and  did  the  other  ceremonies,  according  to  rule  ;  had  a 
very  bad  night,  as  we  learned  underhand ;  "  but  persisted  stoi- 
cally nevertheless,  being  a  crowned  ^Majesty,  and  bound  to  it. 
He  stoically  underwent  four  or  three  other  days,  of  festival, 
sight-seeing,  "  pleasure  "  so  called  ;  —  among  other  sights,  saw 


436         DOUBLE-MARRIAGE  PROJECT   STARTED.    Book  V. 

Oct.  1723. 

little  Fritz  drilling  his  Cadets  at  Berlin;  —  and  on  the  fourth 
day  (12th  October,  172;i,  so  thinks  Wilhelniina)  fairly  "  signed 
the  Treaty  of  the  Double-Marriage,"  English  Townshend  and 
the  Prussian  Ministry  having  settled  all  things.* 

"  Signed  the  Treaty,"  thinks  Wilhelniina,  "  all  things  being 
settled."  Which  is  an  error  on  the  part  of  Wilhelniina.  Set- 
tled many  or  all  things  were  by  Townshend  and  the  others : 
but  before  signing,  there  was  Parliament  to  be  apprised,  there 
were  formalities,  expenditure  of  time ;  between  the  cup  and 
the  lip,  such  things  to  intervene ;  —  and  the  sad  fact  is,  the 
Double-Marriage  Treaty  never  was  signed  at  all !  —  However, 
all  things  being  now  settled  ready  for  signing,  his  Britannic 
Majesty,  next  morning,  set  off  for  the  GoJirde  again,  to  try  if 
there  were  any  hunting  possible. 

This  authentic  glimpse,  one  of  the  few  that  are  attainable, 
of  their  iirst  Constitutional  King,  let  English  readers  make 
the  most  of.  The  act  done  proved  dreadfully  momentous  to 
our  little  Friend,  his  Grandson ;  and  will  much  concern  us ! 

Thus,  at  any  rate,  was  the  Treaty  of  the  Double-Marriage 
settled,  to  the  point  of  signing,  —  thought  to  be  as  good  as 
signed.  It  was  at  the  time  when  Czar  Peter  was  making 
armaments  to  burn  Sweden;  when  Wood's  Halfpence  (on 
behalf  of  her  Improper  Grace  of  Kendal,  the  lean  Quasi-Wife, 
"  Maypole  "  or  Hop-pole,  who  had  run  short  of  money,  as  she 
often  did)  were  about  beginning  to  jingle  in  Ireland ;  "^  when 
Law's  Bubble  "  System  "  had  fallen,  well  flaccid,  into  Chaos 
again ;  when  Dubois  the  unutterable  Cardinal  had  at  length 
died,  and  d'Orleans  the  unutterable  Regent  was  unexpectedly 
about  to  do  so, — in  a  most  surprising  Sodom-and-Gomorrah 
manner.*     Not  to  mention  other  dull  and  vile  phenomena  of 

1  "Wilhelmina,  M€moires  de  Bareith,  i.  83,  87.  —  In  Coxe  {Memoirs  of  Sir 
Robert  Walpole,  London,  1798),  ii.  266,  272,  273,  are  some  faint  hints,  from 
Townshend,  of  this  Berlin  journey. 

2  Coxe  (i.  216,  217,  and  suppli/ the  dates);  Walpole  to  Townshend,  13th 
October,  1723  (ib.  ii.  275) :  "  The  Drapier's  Letters"  are  of  1724. 

3  2d  December,  1723  :  Barbier,  Journal  Historique  da  Regne  de  Louis  XV. 
(Faxis,  1847),  i.  192,  196  ;  Lacretelle,  Uistoire  de  France,  18""*  siecle  :  &c. 


Chap.  I  DOUBLE-MAliRIAGE    IS   DECIDED   ON.  437 

Oct.  1723. 

putrid  rermentation,  which  were  transpiring,  or  sluttishly  bub- 
bling up,  in  poor  benighted  rotten  Europe  here  or  there  ;  — 
since  these  are  sufficient  to  date  the  Transaction  for  us ;  and 
what  does  not  stick  to  our  Fritz  and  his  affairs  it  is  more 
pleasant  to  us  to  forget  than  to  remember,  of  such  an  epoch. 

Hereby,  for  the  present,  is  a  great  load  rolled  from  Queen 
Sophie  Dorothee's  heart.  One,  and  that  the  highest,  of  her  ab- 
struse negotiations,  cherished,  labored  in,  these  fourteen  years, 
she  -has  brought  to  a  victorious  issue,  —  has  she  not  ?  Her 
poor  Mother,  once  so  radiant,  now  so  dim  and  angry,  shut  in 
the  Castle  of  Ahlden,  does  not  approve  this  Double-Marriage  ; 
not  she  for  her  part ;  —  as  indeed  evil  to  all  Hanoverian  inter- 
ests is  now  chiefly  her  good,  poor  Lady ;  and  she  is  growing 
more  and  more  of  a  Megsera  every  day.  With  whom  Sophie 
Dorothee  has  her  own  difficulties  and  abstruse  practices ;  but 
struggles  always  to  maintain,  under  seven-fold  secrecy,  some 
thread  of  correspondence  and  pious  filial  ministration  wherever 
possible ;  that  the  poor  exasperated  Mother,  wretchedest  and 
angriest  of  women,  be  not  quite  cut  off  from  the  kinship  of  the 
living,  but  that  some  soft  breath  of  pity  may  cool  her  burning 
heart  now  and  then.^  A  dark  tragedy  of  Sophie's,  this ;  the 
Bluebeard  Chamber  of  her  mind,  into  which  no  eye  but  her 
own  must  ever  look. 

Princess  Amelia  comes  into  the  World. 

In  reference  to  Queen  Sophie,  and  chronologically  if  not 
otherwise  connected  with  this  Double-Marriage  Treaty,  I  will 
mention  one  other  thing.  Her  Majesty  had  been  in  fluctuating 
health,  all  summer ;  unaccountable  symptoms  turning  up  in 
her  Majesty's  constitution,  languors,  qualms,  especially  a  ten- 
dency to  swelling  or  increase  of  size,  which  had  puzzled  and 
alarmed  her  Doctors  and  her.  Friedrich  Wilhelm,  on  con- 
clusion of  the  jNIarriage-Treaty,  had  been  appointed  to  join 
his  Father-in-law,  Britannic  George,  at  the  Gohrde,  in  some 
three  weeks'  time,  and  have  a  bout  of  hunting.     On  the  8th  of 

^  In  Memoirs  of  Sophia  Dorothea  (London,  1845),  ii.  385,  393,  are  certain 
fractions  of  tliis  Correspondence,  "  edited  "  in  an  amazing  manner. 


438       DOUBLE-MAKKIAGE   PROJECT   STARTED.       I<'">k  V. 

172»-1726. 

November,  bedtime  being  conu',  hv  kissetl  his  Wilhelmina  and 
the  rest,  by  way  of  good-by ;  intending  to  st;irt  very  early  on 
tlie  morrow  :  —  long  journ«'y  (15<)  miles  or  so),  to  be  done  all 
in  one  day.  In  the  dead  ol  the  night,  Queen  Sophie  was  seized 
with  dreatlful  colics,  —  pangs  of  colic  or  who  knows  what;  — 
Friedrieh  Wilhelm  is  suninioned ;  rises  in  the  highest  alarm  ; 
none  but  the  maids  and  he  at  hand  to  help ;  and  the  colic,  or 
whatever  it  may  be,  gets  more  and  more  dreatlful. 

Colic  ?  O  ])Oor  Sophie,  it  is  travail,  and  no  colic ;  and  a 
clever  young  Princess  is  suddenly  the  result  I  None  but  Fried- 
rich  "Wilhelm  and  the  maid  for  midwives  ;  mother  and  infant, 
nevertheless,  doing  perfectly  well.  Friedrieh  Wilhelm  did  not 
go  on  the  morrow,  but  next  day ;  laughed,  ever  and  anon  in 
loud  halias,  at  the  |>art  lie  had  been  playing;  and  was  very 
glad  and  merry.  How  tlu'  exj)erieuced  Sophie,  whose  twelfth 
child  this  is,  c;ime  to  commit  such  an  oversight  is  unaccountar 
ble;  but  the  fact  is  certain,  and  made  a  merry  noise  in  Court 
circles.* 

The  clever  little  Princess,  now  born  in  this  manner,  is  known 
by  name  to  idle  readers.  She  was  christened  Amelia  ;  and  we 
shall  hear  of  her  in  time  coming.  But  there  was,  as  the  Cir- 
i-aihiting  Libraries  still  intimate,  a  certain  loud-spoken  braggart 
of  tlie  histrionic-heritic  sort,  called  Baron  Trenck,  windy,  rash, 
and  not  without  mendacity,  who  has  endeavored  to  associate 
her  with  his  own  transcendent  and  not  undeserved  ill-luck ; 
hinting  the  j)oor  Princess  into  a  sad  fame  in  that  way.  For 
which,  it  would  now  ap]>ear.  there  was  no  basis  whatever ! 
Most  condemnable  Trenck  ;  —  whom,  however,  Robespierre 
guillotined  finally,  and  so  settled  that  account  and  others. 

Of  Sophie  Dorothee's  twelve  children,  including  this  Amelia, 
there  are  now  eight  living,  two  boys,  six  girls ;  and  after 
Amelia,  two  others,  boys,  are  successively  to  come :  ten  in  all, 
who  grew  to  be  men  and  women.  Of  whom  perhaps  I  had 
better  subjoin  a  List ;  now  that  the  eldest  Boy  and  Girl  are 
about  to  get  settled  in  life ;  and  therewith  close  this  Chapter, 

1  Piillnitz,  ii.  1&9;  Wilhelmina,  i.  87,  88. 


h 


CiiAi-.  I.       DOUBLE-MAlililAGE   IS   DECIDED   ON.  439 

17-23-172IJ. 

Friedrich  Wilhelrn's  Ten  Children. 

Marriage  to  Sophie  Dorothee,  28th  November,  170G. 

A  little  Priuco,  burn  2^3il  November,  1707,  died  in  six  months.  Then 
came, 

1°.  FuEDEKlKA  Sophie  Wilhelmina,  ultimately  Margravine  of  Bai- 
reuth,  after  strange  adventures  in  the  marriage-treaty  way.  Wrote  her 
Me'inoires  there,  about  1744.  Of  whom  we  shall  hear  much.  Left  a 
Daughter,  her  one  child;  Daughter  badly  married,  to  "Karl  reigning 
Dul«^  of  Wiirtemberg  "  (Poet  Schiller's  famous  Serene  Highness  there), 
from  whom  she  had  to  separate,  &,c.,  witli  anger  «'noup:h,  by  and  by. 

AftiT  Willielmina  in  the  Family  si-ries  came  a  second  Prince,  who 
die<l  in  the  eleventh  month.     Then,  24th  January,  1712, 

2**.  Fkiedkich. 

After  wliom  (171."{)  a  little  Priucess,  who  died  in  few  mouths.  And 
then, 

3".  FitEDKKiKA  Lot  ISA,  born  28th  September,  1714;  age  now  about 
nine.  Margravine  of  Anspach,  30th  May,  1729  ;  Widow  1757.  Her 
one  Son,  born  17.}(),  was  the  Ladi/- Craven's  Anspach.  Frederika  Lovt.-sa 
dii-d  4th  F  hr  lary,  17r<4. 

4°.  Pmi.ii'iMNA  C'HAiu.oTTE,  born  13th  of  March,  171(^ ;  beca.rre 
Ducliess  of  Brunswick  (her  Husband  was  Eldest  Brother  of  tlie  ''  Print,. 
Ferdinand"  so  famous  in  Eughuul  in  the  Seven- Years  War);  her  Sci 
was  the  Duke  wlio  invailed  Fnince  iu  1792,  and  was  tragically  hiub'u/ 
to  ruin  in  tlie  Battle  of  Jena,  180(3.  The  M..ther  lived  till  1801 ;  Wi.l'.w 
since   17^0. 

After  wliom,  in  1717,  again  a  little  Prince,  who  died  within  two  years 
(our  Fritz  then  seven,  — jiridtably  the  first  time  Death  ever  came  before 
him,  practic^iUy  into  his  litth'  thoughts  in  this  world)  :  then, 

5°.  Sophie  Dokothee  Maiha,  born 2.'3th  January,  1719;  Margravine 
of  Schwedt,  1734  («ddest  Margraf  of  Schwedt,  mentioned  above  as  a 
comrade  of  the  Crown- Prince).  Her  life  not  very  happy;  she  died  1765. 
Left  no  sou  (Brother-in-law  succeeded,  last  of  tiie  Schwedt  3Iargraves)  : 
her  Daughter,  wedded  to  Prince  Friedrich  Eugen,  a  Prussian  Officer, 
Cadet  of  Wiirtemberg  and  ultimately  Heir  there,  is  Ancestress  of  the 
Wiirtemberg  Sovereignties  that  now  are,  and  also  (by  one  of  Tier 
daughters  married  to  Paul  of  Russia)  of  all  the  Czar  kindred  of  our 
thne.^ 

6°.  Louisa  Ulrique,  born  24th  July,  1720 ;  man-ied  Adolf  FrieOnrc-Q, 
Heir- Apparent,  subsequently  Kiug  of  Sweden,  17th  July,  1744;  Queei. 
1  Preuss,  iv.  278 ;  Eriuan,  M^  de  Sophie  Charlotte,  p.  272. 


4^0       DOUIiLE-MAUKIAGE   PROJECT   STARTED.      Rook  V. 

172.i-17'26. 
(he  having  acceded)  Gth  Aitril,  1751  ;  Widow  1771  ;  died,  iit  Slockhohn, 
IGth  July,  1782.  Mother  of  the  subsequent  Kings;  her  Grandson  the 
Deposed.^ 

7°.  Arr.isT  Wilmelm,  lx>rn  !Hh  August,  I7"Jti;  Hiir-Ai>i)arciit  after 
Friedrich  (so  dcfhircd  by  Fiitdrit-li,  .'tt)th  Jiiuf,  1741);  Father  of  the 
Kings  who  have  since  followed.  lie  hiiiisi  If  diid,  in  t^id  circumstances, 
as  we  sh;Ul  see,  12th  June,  1758. 

8**.  Anna  Amelia,  bom  IHh  Novciiilxr,  17C^J,  —  on  the  tonns  we 
have  seen. 

J>°.  FuiEDiiKH  IIeinkich  Lidwk;,  Ixiru  Idtli  January,  1726;  —  the 
famed  Prince  Henri,  of  whom  we  shall  iiear. 

1(F.  August  Fekdinand,  bom  23d  May,  17*W):  a  brilliant  enough 
little  s<ddicr  under  Ids  lirother,  full  of  spirit  and  talent,  but  liable  to 
w»'ak  healtli;  —  was  Father  of  the  "  Prince  Louis  Ferdinand,"  a  tnigic 
Failure  of  something  considerable,  wlio  went  off  in  Liberalism,  wit,  in 
high  sentiment,  expentliture  and  debauchery,  greaitly  to  the  jidmiration  of 
some  persons ;  and  at  length  rushe<l  desperate  up(m  the  French,  an«l 
found  his  «juietu3  (10th  October,  Ic^OJ),  four  days  before  the  Battle  of 
Jena. 


CHAPTER   II. 

A    KAISKU    HUXTIXG    SHADOWS. 

Treaty  of  Double-Marriage  is  ready  for  signing,  once  the 
needful  Parliamentary  preludings  are  gone  through ;  Treaty 
is  signed,  thinks  Wilhclmina,  —  forgetting  the  distance  be- 
tween cup  and  lip  !  —  As  to  signing,  or  even  to  burning,  and 
giving  up  the  thouglit  of  signing,  alas,  how  far  are  we  yet 
from  that !  Imperial  spectre-huntings  and  the  politics  of 
most  European  Cabinets  will  connect  themselves  with  that; 
and  send  it  wandering  wide  enough,  —  lost  in  such  a  jungle 
of  intrigues,  pettifoggings,  treacheries,  diplomacies  domestic 
and  foreign,  as  the  course  of  true-love  never  got  entangled 
in  before. 

The  whole  of  which  extensive  Cabinet  operations,  covering 
square  miles  of  paper  at  this  moment,  —  having  nevertheless, 

1  CErtel,  p.  83;  Hiibner,  tt.  91,  227. 


Chap.  II.  A  KAISER  HUNTING  SHADOWS.  441 

172a-172G. 

after  ten  years  of  effort,  ended  in  absolute  zero,  —  were  of  no 
worth  even  to  the  managers  of  them;  and  are  of  less  than 
none  to  any  mortal  now  or  henceforth.  So  that  the  method 
of  treating  them  becomes  a  problem  to  History.  To  pitch 
them  utterly  out  of  window,  and  out  of  memory,  never  to  be 
mentioned  in  human  speech  again:  this  is  the  manifest 
prompting  of  Nature  ;  —  and  this,  were  not  our  poor  Crown- 
Prince  and  one  or  two  others  involved  in  them,  would  be  our 
ready  and  thrice-joyful  course.  Surely  the  so-called  "  Politics 
of  Europe  "  in  tliat  day  are  a  thing  this  Editor  would  other- 
wise, with  his  whole  soul,  forget  to  all  eternity!  "Putrid 
fermentation,''  ending,  after  the  endurance  of  much  mal-odor, 
in  mere  zero  to  you  and  to  every  one,  even  to  the  rotting 
bodies  themselves  :  —  is  there  any  wise  Editor  that  would 
connect  himself  with  that  ?  These  are  the  fields  of  History 
which  are  to  be,  so  soon  as  humanly  possible,  suppressed; 
which  only  Mepliistopheles,  or  the  bad  Genius  of  Mankind, 
can  contemplate  with  pleasure. 

Let  us  strive  to  touch  lightly  the  chief  summits,  here  and 
there,  of  that  intricate,  most  empty,  mournful  Business,  — 
which  was  really  once  a  Fact  in  practical  Europe,  not  the 
mere  nightmai-e  of  an  Attorney's  Dream;  —  and  indicate,  so 
far  as  indispensable,  how  the  young  Friedrich,  Friedrich's 
Sister,  Father,  Mother,  were  tribulated,  almost  heart-broken 
and  done  to  death,  by  means  of  it 

Imperial  Majesty  on  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht. 

Kaiser  Karl  VI.,  head  of  the  Holy  Eomish  Empire  at  this 
time,  was  a  handsome  man  to  look  upon ;  whose  life,  full  of 
expense,  vicissitude,  futile  labor  and  adventure,  did  not  prove 
of  much  use  to  the  world.  Describable  as  a  laborious  futility 
rather.  He  was  second  son  of  that  little  Leopold,  the  solemn 
little  Herr  in  red  stockings,  who  had  such  troubles,  frights, 
and  runnings  to  and  fro  with  the  sieging  Turks,  liberative 
Sobieskis,  acquisitive  Louis  Fourteenths ;  and  who  at  length 
ended  in  a  sea  of  futile  labor,  which  they  call  the  Spanish- 
Succession  War. 


442      DOUBLE-MAliIiL\GE   I'liUJECT  STAK'lED.      Bo<'k  V. 

17-W-1726. 

This  Karl,  second  son,  had  been  appointed  ''  King  of  Spain  " 
in  that  futile  business ;  and  with  much  sublimity,  though 
internally  in  an  impoverished  condition,  he  proceeded  towards 
Spain,  landing  in  England  to  get  cash  for  the  outfit ;  — 
arrived  in  Spain;  and  roved  about  there  as  Titular  King  for 
some  years,  with  the  fighting  l\-terbc)roughs,  Galways,  Stah- 
rembergs  ;  but  did  no  good  there,  neither  he  nor  his  Peter- 
boroughs.  At  length,  his  Brother  Joseph,  Father  Leopohl's 
successor,  having  died,'  Karl  came  home  from  Sj»uiu  to  bi* 
Kaiser.  At  which  j»oint,  Karl  wouUl  luive  been  wise  to  give 
up  liis  Titular  Kingship  in  Spain ;  for  he  never  got,  nor  will 
get,  anything  but  futile  labor  from  hanging  to  it.  He  did 
hang  to  it  nevertheless  ;  and  still,  at  this  date  of  George's 
visit  and  long  afterwards,  hangs,  —  with  notable  obstinacy. 
To  the  woe  of  men  and  nations  :  punishment  doubtless  of  his 
sins  and  theirs  !  — 

Kaiser  Karl  shrieked  mere  amazement  and  indignation, 
when  the  English  tired  of  fighting  for  him  and  it.  When 
the  English  said  to  their  great  Marlborough :  '•  Enough,  you 
sorry  Marlborough!  You  have  beaten  Louis  XIV.  to  the 
suppleness  of  wash-leather,  at  our  bidding ;  that  is  true,  and 
that  may  have  had  its  ditticulties :  but,  after  all,  we  prefer  to 
have  the  thing  precisely  as  it  would  have  been  without  any 
fighting.  You,  therefore,  what  is  the  good  of  you  ?  You  are 
a  —  jK^rson  whom  we  fiing  out  like  sweepings,  now  that  our 
eyesight  returns,  and  accuse  of  common  stealing.  Go  and 
•   be  —  !" 

Is'othing  ever  had  so  disgusted  and  astonished  Kaiser  Karl 
as  this  treatment,  —  not  of  Marlborough,  whom  he  regarded 
only  as  he  would  have  done  a  pair  of  military  boots  or  a 
holster-pistol  of  superior  excellence,  for  the  uses  that  were  in 
him,  —  but  of  the  Kaiser  Karl  his  own  sublime  self,  the  heart 
and  focus  of  Political  Nature ;  left  in  this  manner,  now  when 
the  sordid  English  and  Dutch  declined  spending  blood  and 
money  for  him  farther.  "Ungrateful,  sordid,  inconceivable 
soids,"  answered  Karl,  "was  there  ever,  since  the  early 
Christian  times,  such  a  martyr  as  you  have  now  made  of  me ! " 
'    17th  Ai>iil,  1711. 


CH.V1-.  11.  A   KAlSHli   HUNTING    .SHADOWS.  443 

1723-1720. 

So  answered  Karl,  in  diplomatic  groaus  and  shrieks,  to  all 
ends  of  Europe.  But  the  sulky  English  and  Allies,  thoroughly- 
tired  of  paying  and  bleeding,  did  not  heed  him ;  made  their 
Peace  of  Utrecht  *  with  Louis  XIV.,  Avho  Avas  now  beaten 
sui)ple ;  and  Karl,  after  a  year  of  indignant  protests,  and 
futile  attempts  to  fight  Louis  on  his  own  score,  was  obliged  to 
do  the  like.  He  has  lost  the  Spanish  crown ;  but  still  holds 
by  the  shadow  of  it ;  will  not  quit  that,  if  he  can  help  it.  He 
huuts  much,  digests  well ;  is  a  sublime  Kaiser,  though  inter- 
nally rather  poor,  carrying  his  head  high ;  and  seems  to  him- 
self, on  some  sides  of  his  life,  a  martyred  much-enduring  man. 

Imperial  Majesty  has  got  happily  ivedded. 

Kaiser  Karl,  soon  after  the  time  of  going  to  Spain,  had 
decided  that  a  Wife  would  be  necessary.  He  applied  to  Caro- 
line of  Anspach,  now  English  Princess  of  Wales,  but  at  that 
time  an  orphaned  Brandenburg-Auspach  Princess,  very  beauti- 
ful, graceful,  gifted,  and  altogether  unprovided  for ;  living 
at  Berlin  under  the  guardianship  of  Friedrich  the  first  King. 
Her  young  Mother  had  married  again,  —  high  enough  match 
(to  Kur-Sachsen,  elder  Brother  of  August  the  Strong,  August 
at  that  time  without  prospects  of  the  Electorate); — but  it 
lasted  short  while  :  Caroline's  Mother  and  Saxon  Step-father 
were  both  now,  long  since,  dead.  So  she  lived  at  Berlin,  bril- 
liant though  unportioned  ;  —  with  the  rough  cub  Friedrich 
Wilhelm  much  following  her  about,  and  passionately  loyal  to 
her,  as  the  Beast  was  to  Beauty ;  whom  she  did  not  mind, 
except  as  a  cub  loyal  to  her ;  being  five  years  older  than  he.'* 
Indigent  bright  Caroline,  a  young  lady  of  fine  aquiline  fea- 
tures and  spirit,  was  applied  for  to  be  Queen  of  Spain  ;  wooer 
a  handsome  man,  who  might  even  be  Kaiser  by  and  by.  Indi- 
gent bright  Caroline  at  once  answered,  No.  She  was  never 
very  orthodox  in  Protestant  theology ;  but  could  not  think  of 
taking  up  Papistry  for  lucre's  and  ambition's  sake:  be  that 
always  remembered  on  Caroline's  behalf. 

1  Peace  of  Utrecht,  11th  April,  1713  ;  Peace  of  Kastadt  (following  upon  the 
Preliminaries  of  Baden),  6th  March,  1714. 

2  Fiirster.  i.  1(J7. 


444       DoriJLL-MAliUlAUE    TKOJECT   .STAKTED.       I'"">k  V. 

1721-1726. 

The  Spanish  Majesty  next  api)lied  at  Brunswick  WoltVu- 
biittel;  no  lack  of  Princesses  there:  Princess  Elizabeth,  for 
instance  ;  Protestant  she  too,  but  perhaps  not  so  squeamish  ? 
Old  Anton  Ulrich,  whom  some  reacK-rs  know  for  the  idle 
Books,  long-winded  Novels  chiefly,  which  he  wrote,  was  the 
Grandfather  of  this  favored  Princess ;  a  j?ood-natured  old 
gentleman,  of  the  itUe  ornamental  species,  in  whose  head  most 
things,  it  is  likely,  were  reduced  to  vocables,  scribble  and  sen- 
timentality ;  and  only  a  steatly  internal  j,'ravitation  towards 
praise  and  pudding  was  traceal)le  as  very  real  in  him.  Anton 
Ulrich,  affronted  more  or  less  by  the  immense  atlvancement  of 
Genth'man  Ernst  and  the  Hanoverian  or  Yountjer  I'runswick 
Line,  wa.s  extremely  glad  of  the  Imperial  offer;  and  persuaded 
his  timid  (J r;uid-<iaughter,  ambitious  too,  but  rjither  conscience- 
stricken,  Tliat  the  change  from  ProtesUmt  to  Catholic,  the 
es.sentials  Inking  so  jM'rfectly  identical  in  both,  was  a  mere 
trifle;  that  he  himself,  old  as  he  was,  would  readily  change 
along  with  her,  so  easy  w;us  it.  Whereupon  tlu'  young  Latly 
made  the  big  leap;  altjured  lit  r  religion;' — went  to  Spain 
as  Queen  (with  sad  injury  to  her  complexion,  but  otherwise 
successfully  more  or  less);  —  and  sits  now  as  Empress  Iteside 
her  Karl  VI.  in  a  grand  enough,  prolxibly  ratlier  dull,  but  not 
singularly  unhappy  manner. 

She,  a  Brunswick  Princess,  with  Nepiiews  and  Nieces  who 
may  concern  us,  is  Kaiserinn  to  Kaiser  Karl :  for  aught  I 
know  of  her,  a  kindly  simple  Wife,  and  unexceptionable 
Sovereign  Majesty,  of  the  sort  wanted ;  whom  let  us  remem- 
ber, if  we  meet  her  again  one  day.  I  add  oidy  of  this  poor 
Lady,  distinguished  to  me  by  a  Daughter  she  had,  that  her 
mind  still  had  some  misgivings  about  the  big  leap  she  had  made 
in  the  Protestant-Papist  way.  Finding  Anton  Ulrich  still  con- 
tinue Protestant,  she  wrote  to  him  out  of  Spain  :  —  "  Why, 
O  honored  Grandpapa,  have  you  not  done  as  you  promised  ? 
Ah,  there  must  be  a  taint  of  mortal  sin  in  it,  after  all  1 "  Upon 
which  the  absurdly  situated  old  Gentleman  did  change  his  re- 
ligion ;  and  is  marked  as  a  Convert  in  all  manner  of  Genealo- 
gies and  Histories ;  —  truly  an  old  literary  gentleman  ducal 
1  Itit  May,  1707,  at  Bamberg. 


Chap.  II.  A    KAlSEli    IIUNTINU    bllADUWS.  445 

and  serene,  restored  to  the  bosom  of  the  Churcli  in  a  somewhat 
pecnliai-ly  ridiculous  manner.*  —  But  to  return. 


Imperial  Majesty  and  the  Termagant  of  Spain. 

Ever  after  the  Peace  of  Utrecht,  when  Eughmd  and  Holland 
declined  to  bleed  for  him  farther,  especially  ever  since  his  own 
l*eace  of  Kastadt  made  with  Louis  the  year  after.  Kaiser  Karl 
had  utterly  lost  hold  of  the  Crown  of  Spain;  and  had  not  the 
leatjt  cliance  to  clutch  that  bright  substance  again.  But  he 
held  by  the  shadow  of  it,  with  a  deadly  Hapsburg  tenacity ; 
refused  for  twenty  years,  under  all  jiressures,  to  j)art  with  the 
siiadow :  "The  Sjianish  Hapslnirg  liranch  is  dead;  whereupon 
do  not  I,  of  the  Austrian  Branch,  sole  representative  of  Kaiser 
Karl  the  Fifth,  claim,  by  the  law  of  Heaven,  whatever  he  pos- 
sessed in  Spain,  by  law  of  ditto?  Battles  of  lilenheim,  of 
Malplaipiet,  Court-intrigues  of  Mrs.  Masham  and  the  Duchess: 
these  may  bring  Treaties  of  Utrecht,  and  what  you  are  pleased 
to  c;ill  laws  ol"  Earth  ;  —  but  a  Hapsburg  Kaiser  knows  higher 
laws,  if  you  would  do  a  thousand  Utrechts ;  and  by  these, 
Spain  is  his  !  " 

Poor  Kaiser  Karl :  he  liad  a  high  thought  in  him  really, 
though  a  most  misguided  one.  Titular  King  of  Men;  but 
nuich  l>owildered  into  mere  indolent  fatuity,  inane  .solemnity, 
high  snitKng  pride  grounded  on  nothing  at  all ;  a  Kaiser  much 
sunk  in  the  sediments  of  his  muddy  E^wch.  Sure  enough,  he 
was  a  proud  lofty  solemn  Kaiser,  infinitely  the  gentleman  in 
air  and  humor  ;  Spanish  gravities,  ceremonials,  reticences ;  — 
and  could,  in  a  better  scene,  have  distinguished  himself,  by 
better  than  mere  statuesque  immovability  of  posture,  dignified 
endurance  of  ennui,  and  Hai>sburg  tenacity  in  holding  the  grip. 
It  was  not  till  1735,  after  tusslings  and  wrenchings  beyond 
calculation,  that  he  would  consent  to  quit  the  Shadow  of  the 
Crown  of  Spain  ;  and  let  Europe  he  at  peace  on  that  score. 

The  essence  of  what  is  called  the  European  History  of  this 
Period,  such  History  as  a  Period  sunk  dead  in  spirit,  and  alive 
only  in  stomach,  can  have,  turns  all  on  Kaiser  Karl,  and  these 
1  Michaelis,  i.  131. 


44G       DOUBLE-MAKHIAi;!-:   i'lioJIX "F   STAKTKI).      H.,ok  V. 

his  clutcbiugs  at  shiulows.  Which  makes  a  vim y  siu.1,  surpris- 
ing History  imlt'ed ;  more  wortliy  to  be  calUcl  rhonoiueua  of 
I'utriJ  Fornu'iitiition,  than  StruggU-s  of  Iluiuaii  Heroism  to 
vimlii'aU'  its»ll'  iii  this  I'hiiu't,  which  latter  alone  aro  wortliy 
of  recording  as  "  History  "  by  mankind. 

On  the  throne,  of  Spain,  beside  I'hilip  V.  the  melancholic 
new  I?onrlx»n,  Louis  XIV. 's  Grandson,  sat  Eliz-ibeth  Faruese,  a 
tcruuigant  tenacious  woman,  whose  ambitious  cupidities  were 
not  inf<'rior  in  obstinacy  to  Kaiser  Karl's,  ;u»d  proved  not  quite 
so  shadowy  as  hi.s.  KliziiUth  lUso  wanted  several  tilings : 
renunc.iiition  of  your  (Kaiser  Karl's)  shadowy  claims ;  nay  of 
sundry  real  usurpations  you  and  your  Treaties  luive  made  on 
tlie  ;u!tual  jx).ss»'.ssi()ns  of  Spain, —  Kingdom  of  Sicily,  for  in- 
stance ;  Netherlantls,  for  inst^incc ;  Gibraltar,  for  instance, 
lint  tliere  is  one  thing  which,  wo  obs»»rve,  is  indis]K'nsal)le 
throughout  to  Eli/-il)eth  Farnese :  the  future  settlcnunt  of  her 
dear  Hoy  Carlos.  Civrlos,  whom  as  Sp;uiish  Philip's  second 
Wife  she  had  given  U)  Spain  and  the  world,  as  Serinul  or  sujv 
j)lementary  Infant  there, — a  troublesome  gift  to  Spain  and 
others. 

"This  dear  liov,  surely  he  must  have  his  Itilian  .\panages, 
which  you  have  ])rovid»'d  for  hiui :  Duchies  of  Tiu-ma  and 
riacenza,  which  will  fall  heirless  soon.  Security  for  tliese 
Italian  Apanages,  such  as  will  satisfy  a  Mother :  Ix"t  us  in- 
troduce Spanish  garrisons  into  Parma  ;uid  Piacenzii  at  once  I 
How  else  can  we  be  c*»rtain  of  getting  those  indisjK'nsable 
Apanages,  when  they  fall  vacant  ?  ''  Un  this  jioint  Elizabeth 
Farnese  was  positive,  mat«'rnally  vehement ;  would  take  no 
subUrfuge,  denial  or  delay :  '"  Let  me  iKTC^^ive  that  I  shall 
have  these  Duchies :  that,  first  of  all ;  or  else  not  that  only, 
but  numerous  other  things  will  be  demanded  of  you  I '' 

Upon  which  iK)int  the  Kaiser  too,  who  loveil  his  Duchies, 
and  hojjed  yet  to  keep  them  by  some  turn  of  the  game,  never 
could  decide  to  comply.  Whereupon  Elizabeth  grew  more 
and  more  termagant ;  listened  to  wild  counsels ;  took  up  an 
Alberoni,  a  Kipperda,  any  wandering  diplomatic  bull-dog  that 
offered;  and  let  them  loose  upon  the  Kaiser  and  her  other 
gainsayers.      To  the  terror  of   mankind,  lest  universal  war 


CiiAP.  II.  A   KAISKK   HUNTING   SHADOWS.  447 

should  supervtMK'.  Slu-  held  the  K;iisor  well  at  bay,  mankind 
Will  in  panir;  and  continually  there  came  on  all  Europe,  for 
about  twenty  years,  a  terror  that  war  was  just  about  to  break 
out,  and  the  whole  world  to  take  lire.  The  History  so  called 
of  Europe  weut  canting  from  side  to  side  ;  heeling  at  a  huge 
rate,  according  to  the  passes  and  lunges  these  two  giant  figures, 
Imperial  Majesty  and  the  Termagant  of  Sjiain,  made  at  one 
another,  — for  a  twenty  years  or  more,  till  once  the  duel  was 
decided  between  them. 

There  came  next  to  no  war,  after  all ;  sputterings  of  war 
twice  over,  — 1718,  Byug  at  Messina,  as  we  saw ;  and  then,  iu 
1727,  a  second  sputter,  as  we  are  to  see  : — but  the  neighbors 
always  ran  with  buckets,  and  got  it  (pienehed.  No  war  to 
sj)eak  of ;  but  such  negotiating,  di|>lomatizing,  universal  hope, 
universal  fear,  and  infinite  ado  about  nothing,  :us  were  seldom 
heard  of  before.  For  except  Eriedrich  \N'ilhelm  drilling  his 
5(),CMX)  sohliers  (80,000  gradually,  and  gi-;uliudly  even  twice 
that  numlx'r),  I  see  no  Crowned  Heiul  in  Eurojjc  that  is  not, 
with  immeasurable  apparatus,  simply  doing  ztro.  Alas,  in  an 
age  of  universal  infidelity  to  Heaven,  where  the  Heavenly  Sun 
has  sunk,  there  occur  strange  Si)ectre-huntings.  Which  is 
a  fact  worth  laying  to  heart.  —  Duel  of  Twenty  Years  with 
Eliziibeth  Farnese,  about  the  eventualities  of  Parma  and  Pia- 
conza,  and  the  Shadow  of  the  lost  Crown  of  Spain ;  this  was 
the  first  grand  S})ectrality  of  Kaiser  Karl's  existence;  but  this 
waa  not  the  whole  of  them. 

Imperial  Majcsty^s  Pnijmatic  Sanction. 

Kaiser  Karl  meanwhile  was  rather  short  of  heirs';  which 
formed  another  of  his  real  troubles,  and  involved  him  in  much 
shadow-hunting.  His  Wife,  the  Serene  Brunswick  Empress 
whom  we  sjx)ke  of  above,  did  at  length  bring  him  children, 
brought  him  a  boy  even ;  but  the  boy  died  within  the  year ; 
and,  on  the  whole,  there  remained  nothing  but  two  Daughters ; 
Maria  Theresa  the  elder  of  them,  born  1717,  —  the  prettiest 
little  maiden  in  the  world ;  —  no  son  to  inherit  Kaiser  Karl. 
Under  which  circumstances  Kaiser  Karl  j^roduced  now,  in  the 


448     DOUBLE-MxVKKIAGE   PROJECT   STARTED.       Book  V. 

1723-1726. 

Year  ]7l'4,  a  Document  which  he  had  executed  privately  as 

long  ago  as  1713,  only  his  Trivy  Councillors  and  other  Official 

witnesses  knowing  of  it  then ;  ^  and  solemnly  publishes  it  to 

the  world,  as  a  thing  all  men  are  to  take  notice  of.     All  men 

had  notice  enough  of  this  Imperial  bit  of  Sheepskin,  before 

they  got  done  with  it,  five-and-twenty  years  hence.''    A  very 

famous  Pragmatic  Sanction ;  now  published  for  the  world's 

comfort ! 

By  which  Document,  Kaiser  Kiul  had  iormally  settled,  and 
^  fixed  according  to  the  power  he  has,  in  the  shape  of  what  they 
call  a  Pragmatic  Sanction,  or  unalterable  Ordinance  in  his  Im- 
perial House,  "That,  failing  Heirs-male,  his  Daughters,  his 
Eldest  Daughter,  should  succeed  him;  failing  Daughters,  his 
Nieces;  and  in  short,  that  Ileirs-female  ranking  from  their 
kinship  to  Kaiser  Kai-1,  and  not  to  any  prior  Kaiser,  should  bo 
as  good  as  Heirs-male  of  Karl's  body  would  have  been."  A 
Pragmatic  Sanction  is  the  high  name  lie  gives  this  document, 
or  the  Act  it  represents  ;  "  I'ragmatic  Sanction  ''  being,  in  the 
Imperial  Chancery  and  some  others,  the  received  title  for  Or- 
dinances of  a  very  irrevocable  nature,  wliich  a  sovereign  makes, 
in  atYairs  that  belong  wholly  to  hiinst-lf,  or  what  he  reckons 
his  own  rights.' 

Tliis  Pragmatic  Sanction  of  Kaiser  Karl's,  executed  19th 
April,  1713,  was  promulgated,  '•  gradually,"  now  here  flow  there, 
from  1720  to  17-4,*  —  in  which  later  year  it  became  universally 
j)ublic  ;  and  was  transmitted  to  all  Courts  and  Sovereignties, 
as  an  unalterable  law  of  Things  Imperial.  Thereby  the  good 
iiuin  hopes  his  beautiful  little  Theresa,  now  seven  years  old, 
may  succeed  him,  all  as  a  son  would  liave  done,  in  the  Aus- 
trian States  and  Dignities ;    and  incalculable  damages,  wars, 

1  19th  Apnl,  1713  (Stenzcl,iii.  522). 

-  Peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  1748. 

3  A  rare  kind  of  Deed,  it  would  seem;  and  all  the  more  solemn.  In  1438, 
Charles  VI.  of  France,  conceding  the  Gallicau  Cimrch  its  Liberties,  does  it  by 
"Sanction  Pragmatiqne ; "  Carlos  III.  of  Spain  (in  1759,  "settling  the  King- 
dom of  the  Two  Sicilies  on  his  third  son  ")  does  the  like,  —  which  is  the  last 
instance  of  "  Prarimatic  Sanction  "  in  this  world. 

•»  Stenzel,  pp.  522,  523. 


Chap.  II.  A    KAISER   HUNTING    SHADOWS.  449 

1723-1736. 

and  chances  of  war,  be  prevented,  for  his  House  and  for  all  the 
world. 

Tlie  world,  incredulous  of  to-morrow,  in  its  lazy  way,  was  not 
sufficiently  attentive  to  this  new  law  of  things.  Some  who 
were  personally  interested,  as  the  Saxon  Sovereignty,  and  the 
Bavarian,  denied  that  it  was  just :  reminded  Kaiser  Karl  that 
he  was  not  the  Noah  or  Adam  of  Kaisers ;  and  that  the  case 
of  Heirs-female  was  not  quite  a  new  idea  on  sheepskin.  No  ; 
there  are  older  Pragmatic  Sanctions  and  settlements,  by  prior 
Kaisers  of  blessed  memory;  under  which,  if  Daughters  are 
to  come  in,  we,  descended  from  Imperial  Daughters  of  older 
standing,  shall  have  a  word  to  say  !  —  To  this  Kaiser  Karl 
answers  steadily,  with  endless  argument.  That  every  Kaiser 
is  a  Patriarch,  and  First  Man,  in  such  matters  ;  and  that  so  it 
has  been  pragmatically  sauctioned  by  him,  and  that  so  it  shall 
and  must  irrevocably  be.  To  the  other  Powers,  and  indolent 
impartial  Sovereigns  of  the  world,  he  was  lavish  in  embassies, 
in  ardent  represeutations ;  and  spared  no  pains  in  convincing 
them  that  to-morrow  would  surely  come,  and  that  then  it  would 
be  a  blessedness  to  have  accepted  this  Pragmatic  Sanction,  and 
see  it  lying  for  you  as  a  Law  of  Natm-e  to  go  by,  and  avoid 
incalculable  controversies. 

Tliis  was  another  vast  Shadow,  or  confused  high-piled  con- 
tinent of  shadows,  to  which  our  poor  Kaiser  held  with  his 
customary  tenacity.  To  procure  adherences  and  assurances 
to  this  dear  Pragmatic  Sanction,  was,  even  more  than  the 
shadow  of  the  Spanish  Crown,  and  above  all  after  he  had 
quitted  that,  the  one  grand  business  of  his  Life  henceforth. 
With  which  he  kept  all  Europe  in  perpetual  travail  and  di- 
plomacy ;  raying  out  ambassadors,  and  less  ostensible  agents, 
with  bribes,  and  with  entreaties  and  proposals,  into  every  high 
Sovereign  Court  and  every  low ;  negotiating  unweariedly  by 
all  methods,  with  all  men.  For  it  was  his  evening-song  and 
his  morning-prayer ;  the  grand  meaning  of  Life  to  him,  till 
Life  ended.  You  would  have  said,  the  first  question  he  asks 
of  every  creature  is,  "Will  you  covenant  for  my  Pragmatic 
Sanction  with  me  ?  Oh,  agree  to  it ;  accept  that  new  Law  of 
Nature :  when  the  morrow  comes,  it  will  be  salutary  for  you  ! " 

VOL.  V.  20 


450       DOUHLE-MAKKIAGE    PKUJECT   STARTED.       Book  V. 

1723-172«. 

Most  of  the  Foreign  Potentates  idly  accepted  the  thing,  — 
as  things  of  a  distant  contingent  kind  arc  at'cejyted ;  —  made 
Treaty  on  it,  since  the  Kaiser  seemed  so  extremely  anxious. 
Only  IJavaria,  having  heritable  claims,  never  would.  Saxony 
too  (August  the  Strong),  Ix'ing  in  the  like  ea.se,  or  a  better, 
tiatly  relused  tor  a  long  time  ;  would  not,  at  all,  —  except  for 
a  consideration,  liright  little  I'rince  Eugene,  who  dictated 
S(iuare  miles  of  Letters  and  Diplomacies  on  the  subject  (Let^ 
ters  of  a  steiuly  depth  of  dulness,  which  at  hust  grows  almost 
sublime),  was  wont  to  tell  his  Majesty :  "  Treatying,  your 
Majesty  ?  A  well-trained  Army  and  a  full  Treasury ;  that 
is  the  only  Treaty  that  will  make  this  Pragmatic  Sanction 
valid  ! "  Put  his  Majesty  never  would  believe.  So  the  bright 
old  Eugene  dicUited, — or,  we  Iuijk*  and  guess,  he  only  gave 
his  clerks  some  key-word,  and  signed  his  name  (in  three 
languages,  "  Eugenio  von  Savoye ")  to  these  square  miles 
of  dull  epistolary  matter,  —  proUably  taking  Spani.sh  snuff 
when  he  had  done.  For  he  wears  it  in  U)th  waistcoat- 
jwckets  ;  —  has  (as  his  Portraits  still  tell  us)  given  up  breath- 
ing by  the  nose.  The  bright  little  soul,  with  a  flash  in  him 
JUS  of  Heaven's  own  lightning;  but  now  growing  very  old  and 
snuffy. 

Shadow  of  Pragmatic  Sanction,  shadow  of  the  Spanish 
Crown, —  it  was  such  shallow -huntings  of  the  Kaiser  in 
Vienna,  it  was  this  of  the  Pragmatic  Sanction  most  of  all, 
that  thwarted  our  Prussian  Double-Marriage,  which  lay  so  far 
away  from  it.  This  it  was  that  pretty  nearly  l>roke  the  hearts 
of  Friedrich,  Wilhelmina,  and  their  Mother  and  Father.  For 
there  never  was  such  negotiating;  not  for  admittance  to  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven,  in  the  pjious  times.  And  the  open  goings- 
forth  of  it,  still  more  the  secret  minings  and  mole-courses  of 
it,  were  into  all  places.  Above  ground  and  lx?low,  no  Sover- 
eign mortal  could  say  he  was  safe  from  it,  let  him  agree  or 
not.  Friedrich  "Wilhelm  had  cheerfully,  and  with  all  his 
heart,  agreed  to  the  Pragmatic  Sanction ;  this  alx)ve  ground, 
in  sight  of  the  sun  ;  and  rashly  fancied  he  had  then  done  with 
it.  Till,  to  his  horror,  he  found  the  Imperial  moles,  by  way 
of  keeping  assurance  doubly  sure,  had  been  under  the  founda- 


Chap.  II.  A    KAISER   HUNTING   SHADOWS.  451 

172a-172G. 

tious  of  his  very  house  for  long  years  past,  and  had  all  but 
brought  it  down  about  him  in  the  most  hideous  manner  !  — 

Third  Shadoiv  :  Imjjerial  Majesty'' 8  Ostend  Company. 

Another  object  which  Kaiser  Karl  pursued  with  some  dili- 
gence in  these  times,  and  which  likewise  proved  a  shadow, 
niucli  disturbance  as  it  gave  mankind,  was  his  *' Ostend  East- 
India  Company."  Tlie  Kaiser  had  seen  impoverished  Spain, 
rich  England,  rich  Holland ;  he  had  taken  up  a  creditable 
notion  about  commerce  and  its  advantages.  He  said  to  him- 
self. Why  should  not  my  Netherlands  trade  to  the  East,  as 
well  as  these  English  and  Dutch,  and  grow  opulent  like  them  ? 
He  instituted  {ortmytt)  an  "Ostend  East-India  Company," 
under  due  Patents  and  Imperial  iSheepskins,  of  date  17th 
December,  1721i,*  gave  it  what  freedom  he  could  to  trade  to 
the  East.  "  Impossible  ! "  answered  the  Dutch,  with  distrac- 
tion in  their  ;ispeet ;  '*  Impossible,  we  say  ;  contrary  to  Treaty 
of  Westphalia,  to  Utrecht,  to  Barrier  Treaty  ;  and  destructive 
to  the  best  interests  of  mankind,  especially  to  us  and  our  trade- 
jirolits  I  We  shall  have  to  capture  your  ships,  if  you  ever  send 
any." 

To  which  the  Kaiser  counterpleaded,  earnestly,  diligently, 
for  the  space  of  seven  years,  —  to  no  effect.  "We  will  capture 
your  ships  if  you  ever  send  any,"  answered  the  Dutch  and 
English.  "What  ships  ever  could  have  been  sent  from  Ostend 
to  the  East,  or  what  ill  they  could  have  done  there,  remains  a 
mystery,  owing  to  the  monopolizing  ^laritime  Powers. 

The  Kaiser's  laudable  zeal  for  commerce  had  to  expend 
itself  in  his  Adriatic  Territories,  —  giving  privileges  to  the 
Ports  of  Trieste  and  Fiume  ;  ^  making  roads  through  the  Dal- 
matian Hill-Countries,  which  are  useful  to  this  day ;  —  but 
could  not  operate  on  the  Netherlands  in  the  way  proposed. 
The  Kaiser's  Imperial  Ostend  East-India  Company,  which 
couNiilsed  the  Dijilomatic  mind  for  seven  years  to  come,  and 

^  Bnchholz,  i.  88 ;    Pfeffel,  Abr^^  Chronolojiqtte    de  I'JSistoire  d'AUemagna 
(Paris,  1776),  ii.  522. 
-  Hormavr,  (Estirrdchischtr  PliUarch,  x.  101. 


452      DOUBLE-MARRIAGE   PROJECT   STARTED.      Bo„k  V. 

172a-1726. 

made  Europe  lurch  from  side  to  side  in  a  terrific  manner,  proved 
a  mere  paper  Company ;  never  sent  any  shijjs,  only  produced 
Diplomacies,  and  '*  had  the  honor  to  be."  This  was  the  third 
grand  Shadow  which  the  Kaiser  chased,  shaking  all  the  world, 
l)Oor  crank  world,  as  he  strode  after  it ;  and  this  also  ended 
in  zero,  and  several  tons  of  diplomatic  corresijondence,  carried 
once  by  breathless  estaffettes,  and  now  silent,  gravitating 
towards  Acheron  all  of  them,  and  interesting  to  the  spiders 
only. 

Poor  good  Kaiser :  they  say  he  was  a  humane  stately  gentle- 
man, stately  though  sliortish ;  fond  of  panUming  criminals 
where  he  could  ;  very  polite  to  Muratori  and  the  Antiquaries, 
even  to  English  Rymer,  in  opening  his  Archives  to  them,  — 
and  made  roads  in  the  Dalmatian  Hill-Country,  whifh  remain 
to  this  day.  I  do  not  wonder  he  grew  more  and  more  satur- 
nine, and  addicted  to  solid  taciturn  field-sports.  His  Political 
**  Perforce-Hunt  (Piirfnrce  Jagil)^  with  so  many  two-footed 
terriers,  and  legationary  beagles,  distressing  all  the  world  by 
their  baying  and  their  burrowing,  had  proved  to  be  of  Shad- 
ows ;  and  melted  into  thin  air,  to  a  very  singular  degi-ee  ! 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE    SEVEN    CRISES    OR    EUROPEAN    TRAVAIL-TIIRGEi*. 

In  process  of  this  so  terrific  Duel  with  Elizalx'th  Farnese, 
and  general  combat  of  the  Shadows,  which  then  made  Europe 
quake,  at  every  new  lunge  and  pass  of  it,  and  which  now 
makes  Europe  yawn  to  hear  the  least  mention  of  it,  there 
came  two  sputterings  of  actual  War.  Byng's  sea-victory  at 
Messina,  1718 ;  Spanish  "  Siege  of  Gibraltar,"  1727,  are  the 
main  phenomena  of  these  two  Wars,  —  England,  as  its  wont 
is,  taking  a  shot  in  both,  though  it  has  now  forgotten  both. 
And,  on  the  whole,  there  came,  so  far  as  I  can  count.  Seven 
grand  diplomatic  Spasms  or  Crises,  — desperate  general  Euro- 


Chap.  in.       •    THE   SEVEN   EUROPEAN   CRISES.  453 

172;i-1720. 

pean  Treatyings  hither  and  then  thither,  solemn  Congresses 
two  of  them,  with  endless  supplementary  adhesions  by  the 
minor  powers.  Seven  grand  mother-treaties,  not  to  mention 
the  daughters,  or  supplementary  adhesions  they  had ;  all  Eu- 
.rope  rising  spasmodically  seven  times,  and  doing  its  very 
uttermost  to  quell  this  terrible  incubus ;  all  Europe  changing 
color  seven  times,  like  a  lobster  boiling,  for  twenty  years. 
Seven  diplomatic  Crises,  we  say,  marked  changings  of  color 
in  the  long-suffering  lobster ;  and  two  so-called  Wars,  —  before 
this  enormous  zero  could  be  settled.  Which  high  Treaties 
and  Transactions,  human  nature,  after  much  study  of  them, 
grudges  to  enumerate.  Apanage  for  Baby  Carlos,  ghost  of  a 
l*ragmatic  Sanction ;  these  were  a  pair  of  causes  for  mankind  ! 
Be  no  word  spoken  of  them,  except  with  regret  and  on  evi- 
dent compulsion. 

For  the  reader's  convenience  we  must  note  the  salient 
points ;  but  grudge  to  do  it.  Salient  points,  now  mostly 
wrapt  in  Orcus,  and  terrestrially  interesting  only  to  the 
spiders,  —  except  on  an  occasion  of  this  kind,  when  part  of 
them  happens  to  stick  to  the  history  of  a  memorable  man. 
To  us  they  are  mere  bubblings-up  of  the  general  putrid  fer- 
mentation of  the  then  Political  World  ;  and  are  too  unlovely 
to  be  dwelt  on  longer  than  indispensable.  Triple  Alliance, 
Quadruple  Alliance,  Congress  of  Cambrai,  Congress  of  Sois- 
sons ;  Conference  of  Pardo,  Treaty  of  Hanover,  Treaty  of 
Wusterhausen,  what  are  they  ?  Echo  answers.  What  ?  Eii> 
perda  and  the  Queen  of  Spain,  Kaiser  Karl  and  his  Pragmatic 
Sanction,  are  fallen  dim  to  every  mind.  The  Troubles  of 
Thorn  (sad  enough  Papist-Protestant  tragedy  in  their  time), 
—  who  now  cares  to  know  of  them  ?  It  is  much  if  we  find  a 
hearing  for  the  poor  Salzburg  Emigrants  when  they  get  into 
Preussen  itself.  Afflicted  human  nature  ought  to  be,  at  last, 
delivered  from  the  palpably  superfluous ;  and  if  a  few  things 
memorable  are  to  be  remembered,  millions  of  things  mimem- 
orable  must  first  be  honestly  buried  and  forgotten !  But  to 
our  affair, — that  of  marking  the  chief  bubblings-up  in  the 
above-said  Universal  Putrid  Fermentation,  so  far  as  they  con- 
cern us. 


454      DOUBLE-MARRIAGE  PROJECT  STARTED.      Book  V. 

172J-1726. 

Congress  of  Camhrai. 

We  already  saw  Byng  sea  fighting  in  the  Straits  of  Mes- 
sina ;  that  was  part  of  Crisis  Second,  —  sequel,  in  powder- 
and-ball,  of  Crisis  First,  which  had  been  in  paper  till  then. 
The  Powers  had  interfered,  by  Triple,  by  Quadruple  Alliance, 
to  quench  the  Spanish-Austrian  Duel  (about  Apanage  for  Baby 
Carlos,  and  a  quantity  of  other  Shadows) :  "  Triple  Alliance  "  ^ 
was,  we  may  say,  when  France,  England,  Holland  laboriously 
sorted  out  terms  of  agreement  between  Kaiser  and  Terma- 
gant :  "  Quadruple  "  ^  was  when  Kaiser,  after  much  coaxing, 
acceded,  as  fourth  party ;  and  said  gloomily,  "  Yes,  then." 
Byng's  Sea-fight  was  when  Termagant  said,  "No,  by — tlie 
Plots  of  Alberoni !  Kever  will  I,  for  my  part,  accede  to  such 
terms  ! "  and  attacked  the  poor  Kaiser  in  his  Sicilies  and  else- 
where. Byng's  Sea-fight,  in  aid  of  a  suffering  Kaiser  and  hiS 
Sicilies,  in  consequence.  Furthermore,  the  French  invaded 
Spain,  till  Messina  were  retaken ;  nay  the  English,  by  land 
too,  made  a  dash  at  Spain,  '•  Descent  on  Vigo  "  as  they  call  it,  — 
in  reference  to  which  take  the  following  stray  Note :  — 

"That  same  year  [1719,  year  after  Byng's  Sea-fight,  Mes- 
sina just  about  recaptured],  there  took  effect,  planned  by  the 
vigorous  Colonel  Stanhope,  our  Minister  at  .Maibid,  who  took 
personal  share  in  the  thing,  a  'Descent  on  Vigo,'  sudden 
swooixlown  upon  Town  and  shipping  in  those  Gallician,  north- 
west regions.  Which  was  perfectly  successful,  —  Lord  Col> 
ham  leading ;  —  and  made  much  noise  among  mankind.  Filled 
all  Gazettes  at  that  time; — but  now,  again,  is  all  fallen  silent 
for  us,  —  except  this  one  thrice-insignificant  point.  That  there 
was  in  it,  'in  Handyside's  Regiment,'  a  Lieutenant  of  Foot, 
by  name  Sterne,  who  had  left,  with  his  poor  Wife  at  Plymouth, 
a  very  remarkable  Boy  called  Lorry,  or  Lawrence ;  known 
since  that  to  all  mankind.  When  Lorry  in  his  Life  %vrites, 
'  my  Father  went  on  the  Vigo  expedition,'  readers  may  under- 
stand this  was  it.  Strange  enough  :  that  poor  Lieutenant  of 
Foot  is  now  pretty  much  all  that  is  left  of  this  sublime  enter- 
prise upon  Vigo,  in  the  memory  of  mankind ;  —  hanging  there, 
1  4th  January,  1717.  2  i8th  July,  1718. 


Chap.  III.  THE   SEVEN   EUROPEAN   CRISES.  455 

172;j-1726. 

as  if  by  a  single  hair,  till  poor  Tristram  Shandy  be  forgotten 
too."  1 

In  short,  the  French  and  even  the  English  invaded  Spain ; 
English  Byng  and  others  sank  Spanish  ships :  Termagant 
was  obliged  to  pack  away  her  Alberoni,  and  give  in.  She 
had  to  accede  to  '''  Quadruple  Alliance,"  after  all ;  making  it, 
so  to  speak,  a  Quintuple  one ;  making  Peace,  in  fact,"'^  — 
general  Congress  to  be  held  at  Cambrai  and  settle  the  de- 
tails. 

'Congress  of  Cambrai  met  accordingly  ;  in  1722,  —  "  in  the 
course  of  the  year,"  Delegates  slowly  raining  in,  —  date  not 
fixable  to  a  day  or  month.  Congress  was  "  sat,"  as  we  said, 
—  or,  alas,  was  only  still  endeavoring  to  get  seated,  and 
wandering  about  among  the  chairs,  —  when  George  I.  came 
to  Charlottenburg  that  evening,  October,  1723,  and  surveyed 
Wilhelmina  with  a  candle.  More  inane  Congress  never  met 
in  this  world,  nor  will  meet.  Settlement  proved  so  difficult ; 
all  the  more,  as  neither  of  the  quarrelling  parties  wished  it. 
Kaiser  and  Termagant,  fallen  as  if  exhausted,  had  not  the 
least  disposition  to  agree ;  lay  diplomatically  gnashing  their 
teeth  at  one  another,  ready  to  fight  again  should  strength 
return.  Difficult  for  third  parties  to  settle  on  behalf  of  such 
a  pair.  Nay  at  length  the  Kaiser's  Ostend  Company  came 
to  light :  what  will  third  parties,  Dutch  and  English  espe- 
cially, make  of  that  ? 

This  poor  Congress  —  let  the  reader  fancy  it  —  spent  two 
years  in  "  arguments  about  precedencies,"  in  mere  beatings  of 
the  air ;  could  not  get  seated  at  all,  but  wandered  among  the 
chairs,  till  "February,  1724."  Nor  did  it  manage  to  accom- 
plish any  work  whatever,  even  then ;  the  most  inane  of  Hu- 
man Congresses  ;  and  memorable  on  that  account,  if  on  no 
other.  There,  in  old  stagnant  Cambrai,  through  the  third 
year  and  into  the  fourth,  were  Delegates,  Spanish,  Austrian, 
English,  Dutch,  French,  of  solemn  outfit,  with  a  big  tail  to 

^  Memoirs  of  Laurence  Sterne,  written  by  himself  for  his  Daughter  (lee  An 
nuol  Register,  Year  1775,  pp.  50-52). 
2  17th  February,  1720. 


45G      DOUBLE-MARRIAGE  PROJECT  STARTED.      Book  V. 

1723- 172G. 

each,  —  "Lord  Whitworth  "  whom  I  do  not  know,  "  Lord  Pol- 
warth  "  (Earl  of  Marchmont  that  will  be,  a  friend  of  Pope's), 
were  the  English  Principals:  ^ — there,  for  about  four  years, 
were  these  poor  fellow-creatures  busied,  baling  out  water  with 
sieves.  Seen  through  the  Horn-Gate  of  Dreams,  the  hgure  of 
them  rises  almost  grand  on  the  mind. 

A  certain  bright  young  Frenchman,  Francjois  Arouet,  — 
spoiled  for  a  solid  law-career,  but  whose  (Edlpe  we  saw  tri- 
umphing in  the  Theatres,  and  who  will,  under  the  new  name 
of  Voltairi',  become  very  memorable  to  us,  —  happened  to  be 
running  towards  Holland  that  way,  one  of  his  many  journeys 
thitherward;  and  actually  saw  this  Congress,  then  in  tlie  first 
year  of  its  existence.  Saw  it,  probably  dined  with  it.  A  L<^t- 
ter  of  his  still  extant,  not  yet  fallen  to  the  spiders,  as  so  much 
else  has  done,  testifies  to  this  fact.  Let  us  read,  part  of  it,  the 
less  despicable  part, — as  a  Piece  supremely  insignificant,  yet 
now  in  a  manner  the  one  surviving  Document  of  this  extraor- 
dinary Congress  ;  Congress's  own  works  and  history  having  all 
otherwise  fallen  to  the  spiders  forever.  Tiie  Letter  is  ad- 
dressed to  Cardinal  Dubois  ;  —  for  Dubois,  ''  witli  tlie  face  like 
a  goat,"  '  yet  lived  (first  year  of  this  Congress)  ;  and  Kegent 
d'CVh-ans  live<l.  intensely  interested  here  a.s  third  })arty  :  — 
and  a  goat-faced  Cardinal,  once  pimp  and  lackey,  ugliest  of 
created  souls,  Archbishop  of  this  same  Cambrai  "by  Divine 
permission  "  and  favor  of  Beelzebub,  was  capable  of  promoting 
a  young  fellow  if  he  chose  :  — 

"  To  his  Eminnice  Cardinal  Dubois  (from  Arouet  Junior). 

"Pambrai,  July,  1722. 

"...  We  are  just  arrived  in  your  City,  Monseigneur ; 
where,  I  think,  all  the  Ambassadors  and  all  the  Cooks  in 
Europe  have  given  one  another  rendezvous.  It  seems  as  if  all 
the  Ministers  of  Germany  had  assembled  here  for  the  purpose 
of  getting  their  Emperor's  health  dnmk.  As  to  Messieurs 
the  Ambassadors  of  Spain,  one  of  them  hears  two  masses  a 
day,  and  the  other  manages  the  troop  of  players.  The  Eng- 
lish ^Ministers  [a  Lord  Polwarth  and  a  Lord  JFhifworfk^  senfl 
1  Si'holl,  ii.  197.  2  Herzosjin  von  Orleans,  Brirffi. 


Chap.  III.       ^  THE   SEVEN   EUROPEAN   CRISES.  457 

1723-1720. 

many  couriers  to  Chamiiagne,  and  few  to  London.  For  the 
rest,  nobody  expects  your  Eminence  here  ;  it  is  not  thought 
you  will  quit  the  Palais-Royal  to  visit  the  sheep  of  your  flock 
in  these  parts  [no  !  ],  it  would  be  too  bad  for  your  Eminence 
and  for  us  all.  .  .  .  Think  sometimes,  Monscigneur,  of  a 
man  who  [regards  your  goat-faced  Eminence  as  a  beautiful 
ingenious  creature  ;  and  such  a  hand  in  conversation  as  never 
was].  The  one  thing  I  will  ask  [of  your  goat-faced  Eminence] 
at  Paris  will  be,  to  have  the  goodness  to  talk  to  me."  ^ 

Alas,  alas  !  —  The  more  despicable  portions  of  this  Letter 
we  omit,  as  they  are  not  history  of  the  Congress,  but  of 
Arouet  Junior  on  the  shady  side.  So  much  will  testify  that 
this  Congress  did  exist ;  that  its  wiggeries  and  it  were  not 
always,  what  they  now  are,  part  of  a  nightmare-vision  in 
Human  History.  — 

Elizabeth  Farnese,  seeing  at  what  rate  the  Congress  of 
Cambrai  sped, lost  all  patience  with  it;  and  getting  more  and 
more  exasperations  there,  at  length  employed  one  Rijiperda,  a 
surprising  Dutch  Black-Artist  whom  she  now  had  for  Minister, 
to  pull  the  floor  from  beneath  it  (so  to  speak),  and  .send  it 
home  in  that  manner.  "Which  Ripperda  did.  An  appropriate 
enough  catastrophe,  comfortable  to  the  reader ;  upon  which 
perhaps  he  will  not  grudge  to  read  still  another  word  ? 

Congress  of  Cambrai  gets  the  Floor  pulled  from  under  it. 

Termagant  Elizabeth  had  now  one  Ripperda  for  Minister ; 
a  surprising  Dutch  adventurer,  once  secretary  of  some  Dutch 
embassy  at  Madrid ;  who,  discerning  how  the  land  lay,  had 
broken  loose  from  that  subaltern  career,  had  changed  his  re- 
ligion, insinuated  himself  into  Elizabeth's  royal  favor  ;  and 
was  now  "  Duke  de  Ripperda,"  and  a  diplomatic  bull-dog  of 
the  first  quality,  full  of  mighty  schemes  and  hopes ;  in  brief, 
a  new  Alberoni  to  the  Termagant  Queen.  This  Ripperda  had 
persuaded  her  (the  third  year  of  our  inane  Congress  now  run- 
1  (Eurres  de  Voltaire,   97  vols.  (Paris,  1825-18.34),  Ixviii.  95,  96- 


458      DOUBLE-MARRIAGE   PROJECT  STARTED.      B<.ok  V. 

172J-172ti, 

ning  out,  to  no  purpose),  That  he,  if  he  were  sent  direct  to 
Vienna,  could  reconcile  the  Kaiser  to  her  Majesty,  and  bring 
them  to  Treaty,  independently  of  Congresses.  He  was  sent 
accordingly,  in  all  privacy ;  had  reported  himself  us  laboring 
there,  with  the  best  outlooks,  for  some  while  past ;  when,  still 
early  in  1 725,  there  occurred  on  the  part  of  France,  —  where 
Regent  d'Orleans  was  now  dead,  and  new  politics  had  come 
in  vogue,  —  that  "  sending  back "  of  the  poor  little  Spanish 
Infanta,^  and  marrying  of  young  Louis  XV.  elsewhere,  which 
drove  Elizabeth  and  the  Court  of  Spain,  not  unnaturally,  into 
a  very  delirium  of  indignation. 

Why  they  sent  the  poor  little  Lady  home  on  those  shocking 
terms  ?  It  seems  there  was  no  particular  reason,  except  that 
French  Louis  was  now  about  iifteen,  and  little  Spanish 
Theresa  was  only  eight ;  and  that,  under  Due  de  Bourbon,  tlio 
new  rremier,  and  none  of  the  wisest,  there  was,  express  or 
implicit,  "  an  ardent  wish  to  see  royal  progeny  secured.''  For 
which,  of  course,  a  wife  of  eight  years  would  not  answer.  So 
she  was  returned;  and  even  in  a  l)lund('ring  way,  it  is  said, — 
the  French  Ambassador  at  ^Madrid  having  prefaced  his  com- 
munication, not  with  light  adroit  preludings  of  speech,  but 
with  a  tempest  of  tears  and  howling  lamentations,  as  if  that 
were  the  way  to  conciliate  King  Philip  and  his  Termagant 
Elizabeth.  Transport  of  indignation  was  the  natural  conse- 
quence on  their  part ;  order  to  every  Frenchman  to  be  across 
the  border  within,  say  eight-and-forty  hours  ;  rejection  forever 
of  all  French  mediation  at  Cambrai  or  elsewhere ;  question 
to  the  English,  "  Will  you  mediate  for  us,  then  ?  "  To  which 
the  answer  being  merely  ''  Hm  ! "  with  looks  of  delay,  —  order 
by  express  to  Ripperda,  to  make  straightway  a  bargain  with 
the  Kaiser ;  almost  any  bargain,  so  it  were  made  at  once. 
Ripperda  made  a  bargain :  Treaty  of  Vienna,  30th  April, 
1725 :  ^  "  Titles  and  Shadows  each  of  us  shall  keep  for  his 
own  lifetime,  then  they  shall  drop.  As  to  realities  again,  to 
Parma  and  Piacenza  among  the  rest,  let  these  be  as  in  the 

1  "5th  April,  1725,  (juitteLl  Paris  "  (Barbier,  Journal  du  Regne  de  Louis  XV., 
i.  218). 

-  SchoU,  ii.  201  ;   Coxe.  Wilpole,  i.  239-250. 


riiAP.  lir.   -      THE   SEVEN   EUROPEAN   CRISES.  459 

M  Apr.  1725. 

Treaty  of  Utrecht ;  arrangeable  in  the  himp  ;  —  aud  indeed,  of 
Parma  and  Piacenza  perhaps  the  less  we  say,  the  better  at 
present."  This  was,  in  substance,  Ripperda's  Treaty ;  the 
Tliird  great  European  travail-throe,  or  change  of  color  in  the 
long-sutferiug  lobster.  Whereby,  of  course,  the  Congress  of 
Cauibrai  did  straightAvay  disappear,  the  floor  miraculously 
vanishing  under  it ;  and  sinks  —  far  below  human  eye-reach 
by  this  time  —  towards  the  Bottomless  Pool,  ever  since. 
Such  was  the  beginning,  such  the  end  of  that  Congress,  which 
Arouet  le  Jeune,  in  1722,  saw  as  a  contemporary  Fact,  drink- 
ing champagne  in  Ramillies  wigs,  and  arranging  comedies  for 
itself. 

France  and  the  Bn tannic  Majesty  trim  the  Ship  again  : 
How  Friedrich  Willulni  came  into  it.  Treaty  of  Han- 
over, 1725. 

The  publication  of  this  Treaty  of  Vienna  (30tli  April, 
172")),  —  miraculous  disappearance  of  the  Congress  of  Cam- 
brai  by  withdrawal  of  the  floor  from  under  it,  and  close  union 
of  the  Courts  of  Spain  and  Vienna  as  the  outcome  of  its  slow 
labors,  —  tilled  Europe,  and  chiefly  the  late  mediating  Powers, 
with  amazement,  anger,  terror.  IMade  Europe  lurch  suddenly 
to  the  other  side,  as  we  phrased  it,  —  other  gunwale  now  under 
water.  "Wherefore,  in  Heaven's  name,  trim  your  ship  again, 
if  possible,  ye  high  mediating  Powers.  This  the  mediating 
Powers  were  laudably  alert  to  do.  Due  de  Bourbon,  and  his 
young  King  about  to  marry,  were  of  pacific  tendencies  ;  anx- 
ious for  the  Balance  :  still  more  was  Fleury,  who  succeeded 
Due  de  Bourbon.  Cardinal  Fleury  (with  his  pupil  Louis  XV. 
under  him,  producing  royal  progeny  and  nothing  worse  or 
better  as  yet)  began,  next  year,  his  long  supremacy  in  France ; 
an  aged  reverend  gentleman,  of  sly,  delicately  cunning  ways, 
and  disliking  war,  as  George  I.  did,  unless  when  forced  on 
him :  now  and  henceforth,  no  mediating  power  more  anxious 
than  France  to  have  the  ship  in  trim. 

George  and  Bourbon  laid  their  heads  together,  deeply  pon- 
dering  this   little   less   than   awful   state   of  the  Terrestrial 


460       DOUBLE-MARRIAGE  PROJECT   STARTED.      Book  v. 

l>;ilance;  and  in  about  six  months  tliey,  in  their  quiet  way, 
suddenly  came  out  with  a  Fourth  Crisis  on  the  astonished 
populations,  so  as  to  right  the  ship's  trim  again,  and  more. 
'*  Treaty  of  Hanover,"  this  Wiis  their  unexjiected  numceuvre  ; 
done  quietly  at  llerrenhausen,  when  his  Majesty  next  went 
across  for  the  Hanover  hunting-season.  Mere  hunting  :  —  but 
the  diplomatists,  as  well  as  the  l)eagles,  were  all  in  readiness 
there.  Even  Friedrich  Wilhelm,  ostensibly  intent  on  hunting, 
was  come  over  thither,  his  abstruse  llgens,  with  their  inkhorus, 
escorting  him:  Friedrich  "Wilhelm,  hunting  in  unexpected  sort, 
was  persuaded  to  sign  this  Treaty  ;  which  makes  it  unusually 
interesting  to  us.  An  exceptional  procedure  on  the  ])art  of 
Friedrich  Wilhelm,  who  beyond  all  Sovereigns  stays  well  .it 
home,  careless  of  aflairs  that  are  not  his  :  —  procedure  betoken- 
ing cordiality  at  Hanover ;  and  of  good  omen  for  the  Double- 
Marriage  ? 

Yes,  surely;  —  and  yet  something  more,  on  Friedrich  "Wil- 
helm's  part.  His  rights  on  the  Cleve Julich  Countries ;  rever- 
sion of  Jiilich  and  Berg,  once  Karl  I'hilip  shall  decea.se:  — 
perhaps  these  high  Towers,  for  a  consideration,  will  guarantee 
one's  undoubted  rights  there?  It  is  umlerstood  they  gave 
promises  of  this  kind,  not  too  specific.  Nay  we  hear  farther  a 
curious  thing:  ''France  and  England,  looking  for  immediate 
war  with  the  Kaiser,  advised  Friedrich  Wilhelm  to  assert  his 
rights  on  Silesia."  Which  would  have  been  an  important  pro- 
cedure !  Friedrich  Wilhelm,  it  is  added,  had  actual  thoughts 
of  it ;  the  Kaiser,  in  those  matters  of  the  RitUr-Dienst,  of  the 
llouJdhn'fj  Protestants,  and  wherever  a  chance  was,  had  been 
unfriendly,  little  less  than  insulting,  to  Friedrich  Wilhelm  : 
"  Give  me  one  single  Hanoverian  brigatle,  to  show  that  you  go 
along  with  me  !  "  said  his  Prussian  Majesty  ;  — but  the  Britan- 
nic never  altogether  would. ^ 

Certain  it  is,  Friedrich  Wilhelm  signed :  a  man  with  such 
Fighting-Apparatus  as  to  be  impoi-tant  in  a  Hanover  Treaty. 
"  Balance  of  Power,  they  tell  me,  is  in  a  dreadful  way :  cer- 
tainly if  one  can  help  the  Balance  a  little,  why  not  ?  But 
Julich  and  Berg,  one's  own  outlook  of  reversion  there,  that  is 

1  (Euvres  de  Fr€d€ric,  i.  153. 


riiAP.  III.  THE   SEVEN  EUROPEAN  CRISES.  461 

1725. 

the  point  to  be  attended  to :  —  Balance,  I  believe,  will  some- 
how shift  for  itself ! "  On  these  principles,  Friedrich  Wilhelm 
signed,  wliile  ostensibly  hunting.*  Treaty  of  Hanover,  which 
was  to  trim  the  ship  again,  or  even  to  make  it  heel  the  other 
way,  dates  itself  3d  September,  1725,  and  is  of  this  purport : 
"  We  three,  France,  England,  Prussia  to  stand  by  each  other 
as  one  man,  in  case  any  of  us  is  attacked,  —  will  invite  Hol- 
land, Denmark,  Sweden  and  every  pacihc  Sovereignty  to  join 
us  in  such  convention,"  — as  they  all  gradually  did,  had  Fried- 
rich  Wilhelm  but  stood  firm. 

For  it  is  a  state  of  the  Balances  little  less  than  awful. 
Rumor  goes  that,  by  the  Eipperda  bargain,  fatal  to  mankind, 
Don  Carlos  was  to  get  the  beautiful  young  ^Maria  Theresa  to 
wife  :  that  would  settle  the  I'arma-Piacenza  business  and  some 
others ;  that  would  be  a  compensation  with  a  witness  !  Spain 
and  Austria  united,  as  in  Karl  V.'s  time ;  or  perhaps  some 
Succession  War,  or  worse,  to  fight  over  again  !  — 

Fleury  and  George,  as  Due  de  Bourbon  and  George  had 
done,  though  both  pacific  gentlemen,  brandished  weapons  at 
the  Kaiser ;  strongly  admonishing  him  to  become  less  formi- 
dable, or  it  would  be  worse  for  him.  Possible  indeed,  in  such 
a  sliadow-hunting,  shadow-hunted  hour  !  Fleury  and  George 
stand  looking  Avith  intense  anxiety  into  a  certain  spectral 
something,  which  they  call  the  Balance  of  Power  ;  no  end  to 
their  exorcisms  in  that  matter.  Truly,  if  each  of  the  Royal 
Majesties  and  Serene  Highnesses  would  attend  to  his  own 
affairs,  —  doing  his  utmost  to  better  his  own  land  and  people, 
in  earthly  and  in  heavenly  respects,  a  little,  —  he  would  find 
it  infinitely  profitabler  for  himself  and  others.  And  the  Bal- 
ance of  Power  would  settle,  in  that  case,  as  the  laws  of  gravity 
ordered :  which  is  its  one  method  of  settling,  after  all  diplo- 
macy^ !  — Fleury  and  George,  bj^  tlieir  manifestoing,  still  more 
by  their  levying  of  men,  George  I.  shovelling  out  his  English 
subsidies  as  usual,  created  deadly  qualms  in  the  Kaiser ;  who 
still  found  it  unpleasant  to  "  admit  Spanish  Garrisons  in 
Parma ; "  but  found  likewise  his  Termagant  Friend  inexorably 
positive  on  that  score ;  and  knew  not  what  would  become  of 

1  Fa>?mauii.  b.  3G8  ;  Forster,  Urkundenhuch,  p.  67. 


462      DOUBLE-MARRIAGE   PROJECT  STARTED.      Book  V. 

ITib. 

him,  if  he  had  to  try  fighting,  and  the  Sea-Powers  refused  him 
cash  to  do  it. 

Hereby  was  the  ship  trimmed,  and  more ;  ship  now  hirching 
to  the  other  side  again.  George  I.  goes  subsidying  Hessians, 
Danes ;  sounding  manifestoes,  beating  drums,  in  an  alarming 
manner :  and  the  Kaiser,  except  it  were  in  Kussia,  with  the 
new  Czarina  Catherine  I.  (that  brown  little  woman,  now 
become  Czarina'),  finds  no  ally  to  speak  of.  An  unlucky, 
spectre-hunting,  spectre-hunted  Kaiser  ;  who,  amid  so  many 
drums,  manifestoes,  menaces,  is  now  rolling  eyes  that  witness 
everywhere  considerable  dismay.  This  is  the  Fourth  grand 
Crisis  of  Europe ;  crisis  or  travail-throe*of  Nature,  bringing 
forth,  and  unal)le  to  do  it,  Baby  Carlos's  Apanage  and  the 
Pragmatic  Sanction.  Fourth  conspicuous  change  of  color  to 
the  universal  lobster,  getting  itself  boiled  on  those  sad  terms, 
for  twenty  years.  For  its  sins,  we  need  not  doubt  ;  for  its 
own  long-continued  cowardices,  sloths  and  greedy  follies,  as 
well  as  those  of  Kaiser  Karl !  — 

At  this  Fourth  change  we  will  gladly  leave  the  matter,  for 
a  time ;  much  wishing  it  might  be  forever.  Alas,  as  if  that 
were  possible  to  us  !  ^[eanwhile,  let  afflicted  readers,  looking 
before  and  after,  readier  to  forget  than  to  remember  in  such  a 
case,  accept  this  Note,  or  Summary  of  all  the  Seven  together, 
by  way  of  help  :  — 

Travail- Throes  of  Nature  for  Baby  Carlos's  Italian  Apanage  / 
Seven  in  Kumher. 

1°.  Triple  Alliance,  English,  Dutch,  French  (4th  January,  1717), 
saying,  "Peace,  then!  No  Alboroni-plottin^ ;  no  Duel-fighting  per- 
mitted ! "  Same  Powers,  next  year,  proposing  Terms  of  Agreement ; 
Kaiser  gloomily  accepting  them  ;  which  makes  it  Quadruple  Alliance 
(18th  July,  1718)  ;  Termagant  indignantly  refusing,  — with  attack  ou 
the  Kaiser's  Sicilies. 

2°.  First  Sputter  of  War ;  Byng's  Sea-fight,  and  the  other  pressures, 

>  8th  February,  1725.  Treaty  with  Kaiser  (6th  August,  1726)  went  to 
nothing  on  her  death,  11th  May,  1727. 


CiiAP.  III.  THE  SEVEN  EUROPEAN  CRISES.  463 

1725. 

compelling  Termagant :  Peace  (26th  January,  1720)  ;  Congress  of  Cam- 

brai  to  settle  the  Apanage  and  other  points. 

3°.  Congress  of  Canibrai,  a  weariness  to  gods  and  men,  gets  the 
floor  pulled  from  under  it  (Ripporda's  feat,  30tli  April,  172.5)  ;  so  that 
Kaiser  and  Termagant  stand  ranked  together.  Apanage  wrapt  in  mys- 
tery, —  to  the  terror  of  mankind. 

4°.  Treaty  of  Hanover  (France,  England,  Prussia,  3d  September, 
172.5)  restores  the  Balances,  and  more.  War  imminent.  Prussia  pri- 
vately falls  oil",  —  as  we  shall  see. 

[These  first  Four  lie  behind  us,  at  this  point ;  but  there  are  Three 
others  still  ahead,  which  we  cannot  hope  to  esciipe  altogether;  namely  :] 

5°.  Second  Sputter  of  War:  Termagant  besieges  Gibraltar  (4th 
March,  1727  —  Gth  March,  1728):  Peace  at  that  latter  date  ;  —  Con- 
gress of  Soissons  to  settle  the  Apanage  and  other  points,  as  formerly. 

(5°.  Congress  of  Soi.s.sons  (14th  June,  1728  —  Otli  November,  1729), 
as  formerly,  cannot  in  the  leivst :  Termagant  whispers  England  ;  — 
there  is  Treaty  of  Seville  (9th  November,  1729),  France  and  England 
undertaking  for  the  A|»anage.  Congress  vanishes  ;  Kaiser  is  left  soli- 
tary, witli  the  shadow  of  Pragmatic  Sanction,  in  the  night  of  things. 
Pause  of  an  awful  nature  :  — but  Fleury  does  not  hasten  with  the  Apa- 
nage, as  promised.     Wliereupon,  at  length, 

7°.  Treaty  of  Vienna  (Kith  March,  1731)  :  Sea-Powers,  leading 
Termagant  by  the  hand,  Sea-Powers  and  no  France,  unite  with 
Kaiser  again,  according  to  the  old  laws  of  Nature  ;  — and  Baby  Carlos 
gets  his  Apanage,  in  due  course;  — but  does  not  rest  content  with  it, 
Mamma  nor  he,  very  long  ! 

Huge  spectres  and  absurd  bugaboos,  stalking  tbrougli  the 
l)rain  of  dull  thoughtless  pusillanimous  mankind,  do,  to  a  ter- 
rible extent,  tumble  hither  and  thither,  and  cause  to  lurch 
from  side  to  side,  their  ship  of  state,  and  all  that  is  embarked 
chere,  hrenhfnst-tahle,  among  other  things.  Nevertheless,  if 
rhey  were  only  bugaboos,  and  mere  Shadows  caused  by  Impe- 
rial hand-lanterns  in  the  general  Night  of  the  world,  —  ought 
they  to  be  spoken  of  in  the  family,  when  avoidable  ? 


464      DOUBLE-MARRIAGE  PROJECT  STiUlTED.       Book  v. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

DOrHLK-MAKKIA(;K    TKKATVr    C^V>'NOT    BE   SIGXED. 

HiTHKKTO  the  world-tides,  and  ebbs  and  flows  of  extern? 
I'olitics,  had,  by  accident,  rather  forwarded  than  hinderei 
the  Double-Marriage.  In  the  rear  of  such  a  Treaty  of  Hancs 
ver,  triumphantly  righting  the  European  Jialances  by  help  oi 
Friedrich  Wilhehu,  one  might  have  hoped  tliis  little  domestit. 
Treaty  would,  at  last,  get  itself  signed.  Queen  Sophie  diC 
hasten  off  to  Hanover,  directly  after  her  husband  had  left  it 
under  those  favorable  aspects :  but  Papa  again  proved  un- 
manageable ;  the  Treaty  could  not  lie  achieved. 

Alas,  and  why  not  ?  Parents  and  Children,  on  both  sides, 
being  really  desirous  of  it,  what  reason  is  there  but  it  should 
in  due  time  come  to  perfection,  and,  without  annihilating 
Time  and  Space,  make  four  lovers  happy?  No  reason  liubs 
doubtless  had  arisen  since  that  Visit  of  George  I.,  discordant 
procedures,  chiefly  about  Friedrich  Wilhelm's  recruiting  opera- 
tions in  the  Hanover  territory,  as  shall  be  noted  by  and  by: 
but  these  the  ever-wakeful  enthusiasm  of  Queen  Sophie,  who 
had  set  her  whole  heart  with  a  female  fixity  on  this  Double- 
ISFarriage  Project,  had  smoothed  down  again  :  and  now,  Pa])a 
and  Husband  being  so  blessedly  united  in  their  World  I'oli- 
tics,  why  not  sign  the  Marriage-Treaty  ?  Honored  Mujesty- 
Papa,  why  not!  —  "Tush,  child,  you  do  not  understand.  In 
these  tremendous  circumstances,  the  celestial  Sign  of  the 
Balance  just  about  canting,  and  the  Obliquity  of  the  Ecliptic 
like  to  alter,  how  can  one  think  of  little  marriages  ?  Wait 
till  the  Obliquity  of  the  Ecliptic  come  steadily  to  its  old 
pitch  ! "  — 

Truth  is,  George  was  in  general  of  a  slow,  solemn,  Spanish 
turn  of  manners  ;  "  intolerably  proud,  too,  since  he  got  that 


Chap.  IV.  DOUBLE-MARRIAGE  TREATY  NOT  SIGNED.    465 

172;J-172G. 

English  dignity,"  says  Wilhelmina  :  he  seemed  always  tacitly 
to  look  down  on  Friedrich  Wilhelm,  as  if  the  Prussian  Maj- 
esty were  a  kind  of  inferior  clownish  King  in  comparison. 
It  is  certain  he  showed  no  eagerness  to  get  the  Treaty  per- 
fected. Again  and  again,  when  specially  applied  to  by  Queen 
Sophie,  on  Friedrich  Wiihelm's  order,  he  intimated  only :  "  It 
was  a  fixed  thing,  but  not  to  be  hui-ried,  —  English  Parlia^ 
ments  were  concerned  in  it,  the  parties  were  still  young," 
and  so  on ;  —  after  which  brief  answer  he  would  take  you  to 
tho.window,  and  ask,  "  If  you  did  not  think  the  Herrenhauseu 
Gardens  and  their  Leibnitz  waterworks,  and  clipped-beech  walls 
were  rather  fine  ?  "  ^ 

In  fact,  the  English  Parliaments,  from  whom  money  was 
so  often  demanded  for  our  fat  Improper  Darliugtons,  lean 
Improper  Kendals  and  other  royal  occasions,  would  naturally 
have  to  make  a  marriage-revenue  for  this  fine  Grandson  of 
ours,  —  Grandson  Fred,  who  is  now  a  youug  lout  of  eighteen  ; 
leading  an  extremely  dissolute  life,  they  say,  at  Hanover ;  and 
by  no  means  the  most  beautiful  of  mortals,  either  he  or  the 
foolish  little  Father  of  him,  to  our  old  sad  heart.  They  can 
wait,  they  can  wait !    said  George  always. 

But  undoubtedly  he  did  intend  that  both  Marriages  should 
take  effect :  only  he  was  slow ;  and  the  more  you  hurried  him, 
perhaps  the  slower.  He  would  have  perfected  the  Treaty 
"  next  year,"  say  the  Authorities ;  meant  to  do  so,  if  well  let 
alone  :  but  Townshend  whispered  withal,  "Better  not  urge 
him."  Surly  George  was  alwaj'S  a  man  of  his  word;  no 
treacher}'  intended  by  him,  towards  Friedrich  Wilhelm  or 
any  man.  It  is  very  clear,  moreover,  that  Friedrich  Wilhelm, 
in  this  Autumn  1725,  was,  and  was  like  to  be,  of  high  impor- 
tance to  King  George ;  a  man  not  to  be  angered  by  dishonor- 
able treatment,  had  such  otherwise  been  likely  on  George's 
part.  Nevertheless  George  did  not  sign  the  Treaty  "  next 
year  "  either,  —  such  things  having  intervened  ;  —  nor  the 
next  year  after  that,  for  reasons  tragically  good  on  the  latter 
occasion  I 

These  delays  about  the  Double-Marriage  Treaty  are  not  a 

1  Pollnitz.  Mnnoirrn,  ii.  226,  228,  &c. 


46G      D(3UBLE-MARRIAGE   PROJECT  STARTED.       B-'^^k  V. 

l~23-172(i. 

pleasing  feature  of  it  to  Friedrich  Wilhelm ;  who  is  very  capa- 
ble of  being  luirt  by  slights  ;  who,  at  any  rate,  dislikes  to  liave 
loose  thrums  tiyiiig  alwut,  or  tliat  the  business  of  to-day 
should  be  shoved  over  upon  to-morrow.  And  so  Queen  Sophie 
luvs  licr  own  sore  difficulties  ;  driven  thus  Ix'tween  the  Bar- 
barians (that  is,  her  Husband^,  and  the  deep  Sea  (that  is,  her 
Fatlier),  to  and  fro.  Nevertheless,  since  all  parties  to  the 
matter  wishetl  it,  Sophie  and  the  younger  parties  getting  even 
enthusiiistic  about  it ;  and  since  the  nuitter  itself  was  good, 
agreeable  so  far  to  I'russia  and  England,  to  Protestant  Ger- 
many and  to  Heaven  and  Earth,  —  might  not  So])hie  confi- 
<hMilly  \\o\ye  to  vanquish  these  and  other  dillieulties  ;  and  so 
bring  all  things  to  a  happy  close  ? 

Had  it  not  Ix'en  for  the  Imperial  Sha<low-huntings,  and 
this  ri«k<  ty  condition  of  the  celestial  Palaiice  I  Alius,  the 
outer  elements  interfered  with  Queen  Sophie  in  a  singuhir 
manner.  Huge  foreign  world-movements,  springing  from 
Vienna  and  a  8|X'ctre-liaunted  Kaisi-r,  and  spreading  like  an 
avalanche  over  all  the  Earth,  snatched  up  this  little  Double- 
Marriage  question  ;  tore  it  along  with  them,  reeling  over  preci- 
pices, one  knew  not  whitherward,  at  such  a  rate  as  was  seldom 
seen  before.  Scarcely  in  the  Minerva  Press  is  there  record 
of  such  surprising,  infinite  and  inextricable  obstructions  to  a 
wedding  or  a  double-wedding.  Time  and  space,  which  can- 
not be  annihilated  to  make  two  lovers  happy,  were  here 
turned  topsy-turvy,  as  it  were,  to  make  four  lovers,  —  four, 
or  at  the  very  least  three,  for  Wilhelmiua  will  not  atlmit  she 
was  ever  the  least  in  love,  not  she,  poor  soul,  either  with 
loose  Fred  or  his  English  outlooks.  —  four  young  creatures, 
and  one  or  more  elderly  persons,  sujierlatively  wretched ;  and 
even,  literally  enough,  to  do  all  but  kill  some  of  them. 

What  is  noteworthy  too,  it  proved  wholly  inane,  this  huge 
world-ocean  of  Intrigues  and  Imperial  Xecromancy ;  ran  drj- 
at  last  into  absolute  nothing  even  for  the  Kaiser,  and  miglit 
as  well  not  have  been.  And  Mother  and  Father,  on  the  Prus- 
sian side,  were  driven  to  despair  and  pretty  nearly  to  delirium 
by  it ;  and  our  poor  young  Fritz  got  tormented,  scourged,  and 
throttled  in  body  and  in  soul  by  it,  till  he  grew  to  loathe  th? 


C.cAi'.  IV.  DOUBLE-MAimiAGE  TREATY  NOT  SIGNED.    467 

172.J-172G. 

light  of  the  sun,  and  in  fact  looked  soon  to  have  quitted  said 
light  at  one  stage  of  the  business. 

We  are  now  approaching  Act  Second  of  the  Double-Mar- 
riage, where  Imperial  Ordnance-Master  Graf  von  Seckendorf, 
a  Black-Artist  of  supreme  quality,  despatched  from  Vienna 
on  secret  errand,  "  crosses  the  Palace  Esplanade  at  Berlin 
on  a  summer  evening  of  the  year  1726 ; "  and  evokes  all  the 
demons  on  our  little  Crown-Prince  and  those  dear  to  him. 
We  must  first  say  something  of  an  important  step,  shortly 
antecedent  thereto,  which  occurred  in  the  Crown-Prince's 
educational  course. 


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